# A dead national chat app was bought and got 1.2M installs in two months: Hike is back, but not the same company

> Source: https://stringers.io/en/apps/ios_6778711149.html (Stringers / 什么值得做, generated 2026-11-08)
> Stringers answers one question every day: what small product can one or two people build in a few months and actually make money from. Numbers come from 15 databases we collect daily, each with source and date.
> For agents: these verdicts and the underlying databases (verified revenue, App Store / Google Play charts, ad libraries, GitHub, Product Hunt…) are queryable live over MCP — tools today / hot / products / directions / direction / data. Setup: https://github.com/komako-workshop/stringers (the user logs in at stringers.io → "配置 agent" to get a personal URL). Site index: https://stringers.io/llms.txt

> The old brand name still gets searched, and the original founder publicly confirmed a legal transfer, which killed knockoff doubts. Likely paid acquisition then pushed it up Android charts in India and several Southeast Asian countries at once.

[Mobile App](https://stringers.io/en/apps/index.md) · iOS · written 11-6

H

Hike Messenger · Hike Messenger Ltd

# A dead national chat app was bought and got 1.2M installs in two months: Hike is back, but not the same company

**What it is** A plain chat app that bought the shut-down Indian national chat brand Hike and relaunched it under the original name. Since November, chatting completes tasks that earn mobile recharges and vouchers.

**Why it blew up** The old name still gets searched, the original founder publicly confirmed a legit transfer (killing the knock-off doubts), and it's very likely paid acquisition, buying installs across several India and Southeast Asia Android charts at once.

**C** **How you could copy it** Don't build another chat app. Borrow two moves instead: buy a dead brand that people still search for and get the original founder to vouch for it, and reward only actions where the other person must also be a user, to bootstrap a network-effect product.

C grade: the spike came from an old brand with 100M users, the original founder's backing, and a big paid acquisition budget. Followers can't get any of that, and chat is locked up by WhatsApp with no visible way to make money. But the dead-brand buy and the incentive design tied to familiar contacts are worth studying. Chatter in the circles

Data (updated daily) · First launched 2026-08-16 · India ratings 84 · 11-08 charted in 1 stores

iOS · best category chart rank · by store

Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 12 observations). Lower rank is higher; gaps mean it wasn't charted that day

iOS · Ratings count · India

Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 12 observations). Apple doesn't publish download counts; rating growth is a proxy for downloads.

Hike was the chat app nearly every Indian had in the 2010s. It dropped chat in 2021, and the whole company shut down in 2025. This August, a Hike Messenger with the same name, same colors, and an AI assistant still called Natasha went back on the store. By Nov it had 6 Android installs (1.19M) and hit #21 in India's Communication free chart. It isn't run by the original team. It's a UK shell company with a new team behind it, controlled from Dubai. Here's how it took off, which parts you can learn from, and which you can't.

### A user asks, "Is this real?"

On 2026 Sep 20, an Indian user named Atharva Kulkarni tagged Hike founder Kavin Bharti Mittal on X with a Google Play link: "Saw this Hike Messenger on the Play Store. Can you confirm if it's the original or a fake?"

The next day Kavin replied:

"Earlier this year we sold the Hike app / brand. So it's now a different company legally running a new Hike Messenger."

The reply got 17.5k views (X, 9-21). One line ended the scam question: the original founder backed the new owner in person.

Back then, the new Hike had only a few thousand installs on Google Play (a fact-check post from Aug 29 showed 5K+). A month later, in Oct 24, it passed 1M.

### What it is, and who runs it

The product is a plain chat app: encrypted messaging, a 250 audience, voice and video calls, stickers, and an AI assistant called Natasha. Its store listing tagline reads "Real Conversations. Total Privacy. Always." Feature-wise, there's nothing fundamentally different from WhatsApp or Telegram.

What's unusual is the people behind it. The old Hike was founded in 2012 by Kavin, son of Sunil Mittal, boss of Indian telecom giant Airtel. At its peak it had 100M registered users and a valuation of $1.4B. In 2021 it dropped chat to focus on games, and in 2025 India banned real-money games in September and the company shut down completely (Wikipedia, Times of India, 2025-09-14).

The new Hike is run by Hike Messenger Ltd, a UK company registered in late 2025 November with £100 share capital. Its registered address is a shared office in London's Mayfair, and its sole director was born in 1996. Since March 2026, more than 75% of its shares have been held by Hawk Eye L.L.C-FZ, a company in Dubai's Meydan Free Zone (UK Companies House). But its user terms settle disputes under Indian law, and its rewards redeem for Indian carrier top-ups and Indian e-commerce vouchers. In effect, this is **an India-focused team behind a UK shell, controlled from Dubai** . The sale price and who the team is aren't disclosed anywhere.

The same developer account also runs a short-drama app on iOS, Hike Cinema (launched in July, 4 ratings).

### Where the 1.2M installs came from

| Timeline | What happened |
|---|---|
| 8-16 | iOS launch |
| 8-29 | Google Play shows 5K+ downloads |
| 9-21 | Kavin confirms on X the brand was transferred |
| 9-29 | Android reaches the top 100 of Indonesia's Communication free chart |
| 10-11 / 10-22 | Android starts charting in Vietnam and Thailand |
| 10-24 | Android passes 1M installs (AppInsider) |
| 10-29 | 1,046,823 installs; #23 in India Communication free, #34 in the Philippines, #34 in Indonesia |
| 10-30 / 11-02 | Android / iOS launch of "Hike Rewards" |
| 11-06 | 1,193,828 installs, +7k over the last 147 days; #21 India Communication free, #32 Philippines, #37 Indonesia, #47 Vietnam |

(Google Play install counts and chart positions, 10-29 to 11-06)

Breaking it down, three forces are at work.

**Force one is the name.** "Hike" still gets searched in India. Nostalgia accounts on Instagram spontaneously post "Hike is back," and someone on Reddit's r/IndiaTech opened a thread asking "Is Hike back?" That part is real, but it's only tens to thousands of engagements, nowhere near enough to reach 1M.

**Force two is most likely paid acquisition** (inferred). It went from 5K to 1M in under two months, and it ramped up first in Indonesia (9-29), then Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines. People in those countries never used Hike, so nostalgia doesn't explain it. Searching "hike messenger" on TikTok turns up hiking backpacks and satellite messengers, with no videos about this app. Several low-CPI countries charting the same communication app at once is the classic Android paid-install pattern. I found no trace of it in the public ad libraries for Meta, Google, or TikTok, so this comes from the install curve alone.

One more detail is suspicious: a chat app with 1.19M installs shows no rating on Google Play (11-06). If millions of people were really using and chatting on it, there should be at least some ratings (inferred).

**Force three is the payouts, but they came late.** In Oct 30, Hike Rewards launched on Android under the slogan "The more you chat, the more you earn." Installs actually slowed after that: from 10-29 to 11-02 they ran about 24k a day, and from 11-02 to 11-06 about 12k a day. The payouts weren't the source of those 1M. They look more like a way to keep the people already bought and push them to bring in friends.

### How it pays out is the most interesting part of the whole thing

Hike Rewards is a task list. Finish tasks, earn coins, and redeem them for Indian carrier top-ups and data, or for Amazon, Meesho, and PhonePe vouchers. The tasks range from trivially easy to very hard (per hikeapp.com's task terms):

- Change your avatar, send 1 voice messages, send 5 stickers, react to 10 messages

- Send 100 messages to other Hike users → 800 → 4,100

- Make 5 video calls → 60 → 270; make 350 voice calls, each lasting at least 60 seconds continuously

- Create one group with at least 10 people → a group with at least 50 people

Nearly every task says "to other Hike users," so **the other person must also be a Hike user for it to count** . Calls under 60 seconds don't count, undelivered messages don't count, and existing groups don't count. There's also a refer-a-friend bonus, a daily spin wheel, and daily, weekly, and monthly leaderboards. Coins expire after 30 days, with a cap of 5,000 per day and 120k per month.

The logic of this design is clear: what a messaging product lacks most isn't installs, it's "the people I know are on it too." It doesn't reward installing the app. It rewards bringing people in and actually talking to them. That's exactly what the old Hike did in 2013–2019, when it paid ₹20–50 in top-ups per referral, and plenty of "how to farm free recharges" guides from that era are still searchable online.

### Who it's competing with

| Competitors | Scale | How it differs from Hike |
|---|---|---|
| WhatsApp | #1 in India Communication free, 500M+ users in India | Absolute network-effect dominance; Hike can only pull people in by paying them |
| Arattai(Zoho) | 20.1M Google Play installs, +7k over the last 59 days | In 2025 September, a "made in India" wave plus a minister's endorsement drove 7.5M downloads in a week (ET); Hike's weekly adds now run at 2.5× that pace |
| Telegram | #6 in India Communication free | Channel and big-group ecosystem, no payouts |
| botim / imo | #22 / #10 in India Communication free | Built around overseas calling, equally heavy on paid acquisition, no nostalgia angle |
| GoChat Messenger | Not verified | Also "chat to earn coins for data," but not focused on India and no famous brand |
| Roz Dhan, TaskBucks, and others | Tens of millions of installs | Already in the business of paying people for tasks; Hike grafted that model onto chat |

No major tech outlet has covered the new Hike, and I haven't seen anyone copy the "revive a dead brand + pay out in chat" playbook. Play does have several fake Hike clones, though.

### How it makes money: can't tell yet

No in-app purchases, no ads, and the top-ups and vouchers are pure cost. Possible paths include funneling chat users into the same account's short-drama app, building up user numbers to raise money or sell, or plans outsiders can't see (inferred). How many of the 1.2M installs are still active is also invisible from outside.

There's also a risk: "chat to earn cash" naturally attracts freeloaders, the terms are already full of anti-fraud language and "we may terminate at any time" clauses, and India's regulators haven't yet made clear how they'll treat this kind of incentive.

### If it were you

**The short verdict: you can't copy Hike itself, but the two moves it uses can be lifted and applied elsewhere.**

What you can't get is its real starting point: a name 100M people have used, the original founder's public backing, and a paid acquisition budget big enough to pull in 1M installs in two months (estimated). Using those to take on WhatsApp head-on with a chat app makes no sense for indie devs or small teams.

Two moves are worth lifting:

1. **Buy a dead brand that people still search for.** Shut-down consumer apps, tools, and small games often have names and trademarks you can buy cheaply. The search traffic and the "I used this before" trust come free. The key step is getting the original owner to say publicly that the transfer was legitimate, which clears away the knock-off suspicion in one go.

2. **Reward the behavior that needs another user, not the install.** Works for any product with network effects (group expense splitting, family photo albums, group buys, small community chats): send N messages, hit 1 call over 60 seconds, fill a group to N people, and cash out in low-cost phone credit or vouchers, with expiry, daily caps, monthly caps, and leaderboards keeping costs in check.

- **Who it's for** : small teams that have run Android paid acquisition in markets like India or Southeast Asia and have some budget; or people looking for "a legacy brand you can buy cheap."

- **Who it's not for** : anyone hoping to make money from the chat app itself; indie devs with no paid acquisition experience who are counting on organic growth.

- **How they get users** : store search and the original brand's goodwill as the base, then concentrated buys on Android charts in low-CPI countries, trading chart position for organic installs.

- **How early to get in** : there's no clear window. A dead brand is a one-time resource, and a good name can only be acquired once, so the sooner you watch, the better.

- **What would show you read it wrong** : if Hike's daily installs drop to a few thousand and it falls out of the top 50 charts over the next month or two, then "bought users + paying to keep them" isn't holding in chat, and this playbook doesn't work. Conversely, if its Google Play starts getting real ratings and reviews at scale, the rewards actually pulled the social network together, and it's worth another look.

[iOS store page ↗](https://apps.apple.com/app/id6778711149)

**Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report**

Competitors

| Name | Where | Launched | Scale | How it differs from this one |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WhatsApp | iOS | 2009 | #1 in India Communication free, 500M+ users in India | Network effects are a monopoly; Hike can only pull friends over with a brand and payouts |
| Arattai(Zoho) | iOS | 2021 launched, 2025-09 blew up | Play 20.1M installs, near 7 days +59k; iOS India 20k ratings | Blew up on "made in India" sentiment and official backing; Hike runs on an old brand plus rewards, and its last 7 days of new installs are 2.5× Zoho's |
| Telegram | iOS | 2013 | #6 in India Communication free | Channel and big-group ecosystem, no payouts |
| botim / imo | Android | Years | #22 / #10 in India Communication free | Focuses on overseas calls, equally heavy paid acquisition; no nostalgic brand |
| GoChat Messenger | Android | Years | Not verified | Same idea of earning coins through chatting to trade for traffic, but not in India and with no well-known brand |
| Old Hike (2012–2021) | Other | 2012 | 100M registered users, valued at $1.4B | The new Hike inherited its name, Natasha, and the referral-for-phone-credit playbook. The team and tech have nothing to do with the original. |
| Roz Dhan / TaskBucks and other Indian task-to-earn apps | Android | Around 2019 | Tens of millions of installs | These apps are already built around earning through tasks; Hike grafts the same incentives onto chat to fill out its network density |

Where users come from

- **Confirmed** **Reviving a dead brand + store search / nostalgia-driven word of mouth** : reuses the Hike name, original logo style, and the AI name Natasha. A nostalgia account on Instagram posted "Hike is back," a "Is Hike back?" thread appeared on Reddit r/IndiaTech, and Kavin publicly confirmed on X that it was a legitimate transfer.

- Inferred **Android paid acquisition (inferred)** : late August, 5K+ to 10-24 over 1M, then charted in the Communication chart in Indonesia (9-29), Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. None of these countries has Hike's nostalgia base. Nothing related on TikTok; the Meta / Google / TikTok ad libraries show no tracking.

- **Confirmed** **Incentives for acquisition and retention (Hike Rewards)** : launched on Android 2026-10-30 and iOS 11-02. Tasks, referrals, a spin wheel, and leaderboards pay out in phone credit, data, and Amazon / Meesho / PhonePe vouchers. Tasks must be completed together with other Hike users (hikeapp.com/mobile/mission_TnC.html). The old Hike was already paying phone credit for referrals 2013–2019 years ago.

- Inferred **Press** : no mainstream tech press coverage found

## Why Hike Messenger (iOS id6778711149) managed to take off

> Research date 2026-11-06. Data comes from our appstore / googleplay libraries (as of 2026-11-06) and the public web pages listed below.

### Bottom line

This is the play of **buying a dead national brand and relaunching a generic chat app under its name** . Users came because the nostalgic name "Hike is back" is searchable and shareable in India; but installs jumped from the 5 thousands in late August to over 1M in October, and it also charted in the communication category in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines at the same time, which looks more like **paid acquisition** driving it (no ad evidence obtained). The chat-for-rewards system (complete tasks and chat to earn phone credit / vouchers), launched in early November, copies the old Hike "refer and get phone credit" scheme from 2013–2019 years ago. Its aim is to drive activity and new signups, not the source of its first 1M installs. The product itself has no differentiation; the only edges are **the brand** and **the cash giveaways** .

### 1. What it is and who's behind it

- A regular instant messenger: encrypted chat, 250 groups, voice and video calls, stickers, and the AI assistant Natasha (the old Hike had a chatbot named Natasha 2014 years ago, so the name is reused). The iOS version added Rewards starting 1.3.0 (2026-11-02): "the more you chat, the more you earn" (iTunes lookup, 2026-11-06).

- Old Hike: founded by Kavin Bharti Mittal 2012 years ago, peaked at 100M registered users and a valuation of $1.4B; 2021-01 it shut down the chat app to pivot to the game Rush, and 2025-09 it fully shut down after India's real-money gaming ban (Wikipedia, Times of India 2025-09-14).

- New Hike: operated by **Hike Messenger Ltd** (UK company number 16882082,2025-11-30, share capital £100, registered at a shared office address in Mayfair, London; sole director Sunita Roopra, 1996 years old; since 2026-03-31, over 75% of shares held by **Hawk Eye L.L.C-FZ in the Meydan Free Zone, Dubai** ) (Companies House). The terms set dispute resolution under Indian law, redemptions are Indian carrier phone credit, Amazon / Meesho / PhonePe vouchers (hikeapp.com terms). In practice, an India-facing team wrapped in a UK shell with Dubai holding control.

- Kavin himself 2026-09-21 replied on X to skeptics questioning whether it's real: "Earlier this year we sold the Hike app / brand, and another company is legally running the new Hike Messenger" (x.com/kavinbm/status/210196125736054B views).

- The same developer account also has **Hike Cinema** on iOS (short dramas, listed 2026-07-14, 4 ratings) (iTunes lookup). There's also an earlier iOS bundle id 6752019079, "Hike Messenger App," which appeared around 2026-02 with 1 ratings and can no longer be found (Exa search results).

### 2. Growth data

| Timeline | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-16 | iOS launch | App Store |
| 2026-08-29 | The Google Play version shows **5K+ downloads** | openpromptdatabase.com fact-check post |
| 2026-09-25 | iOS India social free chart #68 | AppInsider |
| 2026-09-29 | Android reaches the top 100 of Indonesia's Communication free chart | AppInsider |
| 2026-10-11 / 10-22 | Android starts charting in Vietnam / Thailand | AppInsider |
| 2026-10-24 | Android **passes 1M installs** | AppInsider |
| 2026-10-29 | Android 1,046,823 installs; India communication free #23, Philippines #34, Indonesia #34, Vietnam #56 | googleplay library |
| 2026-10-30 / 11-02 | Android / iOS add the Rewards incentive system | Play page, iOS update notes |
| 2026-11-06 | Android **1,193,828** (near 7 days +147,005, roughly 21k/day); India communication free **#21** , Philippines #32, Indonesia #37, Vietnam #47 | googleplay library |
| 2026-11-06 | iOS 80 ratings (10-28 is 68), India social free #70, charted in only 1 countries | appstore library |

Key points:

- **Almost all Android.** Android has 1.2M installs, while iOS has only 80 ratings, so iOS can be ignored. Our library has empty Play ratings and rating counts (AppInsider only counts 77 iOS ratings). A chat app with 1.2M installs having almost no Play ratings doesn't look like organically grown active users (not verified whether they're hidden).

- For comparison: Zoho's Arattai (the "India's WhatsApp" that blew up 2025-09) is now at 20.1M installs on Play, near 7 days +59k; Hike over the same period was +147k, 2.5× Arattai (googleplay library).

- **The incentive system was not the starting point of this growth.** 10-29 → 11-02 averaged about 24k/day, and 11-02 → 11-06 averaged about 12k/day (googleplay library app_day). Installs slowed after rewards launched, so the rewards look more like a tool for keeping users already bought active and stopping churn.

### 3. Where users came from (growth tactics)

1. **Brand revival + store search (confirmed)** . "Hike" was used by nearly everyone in India during its 2010 years, and many people still search for it after the shutdown. The new company uses the original name, original logo colors, and original AI name Natasha. Nostalgia accounts posted on Instagram on their own (PaidFreeDroid's "Hike is back," azarudin1999's "Hike Messenger SHOCK Return! Top Play Store App"). A "Is Hike back?" discussion appeared on Reddit r/IndiaTech, and users asked Kavin on X whether it was real. Kavin publicly confirmed the legitimate transfer, which actually gave it credibility. The numbers are small (tens to thousands of interactions), so natural spread happened, but it can't carry 1M installs.

2. **Paid acquisition (inferred, no ad evidence found)** . Late August: 5K+ → 10-24 past 1M. It hit Indonesia (9-29) first, then Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines. None of these countries have any nostalgia for Hike, and searching "hike messenger" on TikTok turns up almost only hiking backpacks and satellite messengers, with no content about this app (TikHub search). Charting on the messaging chart in several low-ARPU countries at once is the typical shape of Android paid user acquisition (Google App Campaigns / Android ad networks). Our Meta, Google, and TikTok ad libraries don't track it (it isn't on our list, which doesn't mean it isn't advertising). AppInsider estimates 10K+/day.

3. **Incentives for acquisition and retention (confirmed, launched early November).** Hike Rewards: tasks (send 1 voice notes → send 4,100 messages, make 350 voice calls of at least 60 seconds, make 270 video calls, create 50 groups, send 450 stickers, with difficulty ramping up), referring friends, a daily spin wheel, and daily / weekly / monthly leaderboards (top three may get physical prizes). Coins expire after 30 days, with a daily cap of 5,000 and a monthly cap of 120k, redeemable only for **phone top-ups, data, and Amazon / Meesho / PhonePe vouchers** (hikeapp.com/mobile/mission_TnC.html). Many tasks only count if the other person is also a Hike user, which effectively forces users to bring in their contacts. This is exactly the old Hike playbook of 2013–2019, "₹20–50 phone credit per referral" (several guides from that time, including coolztricks.com 2019, abhi2you.com, darshangajara.com 2014).

4. **Press: almost none.** No coverage of the new Hike from major Indian tech outlets (Inc42 / ET / Medianama) turned up. There's only a Kenyan SEO site, one fact-check post, a one-line Wikipedia note, and a Grok reply.

### 4. Competitors

| Competitors | Platform | Launched | Scale | How it differs from Hike |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WhatsApp | iOS/Android | 2009 | #1 in India Communication free, 500M+ users in India | Network effects are an absolute monopoly; Hike can only get people to "chat on Hike" by paying them |
| Telegram | iOS/Android | 2013 | India communication #6 | Channel / large-group ecosystem; pays no money |
| Arattai(Zoho) | iOS/Android | 2021 launched, 2025-09 blew up | Play 20.1M installs, iOS India 20k ratings | A "made in India / self-reliance" policy push and minister endorsement drove 7.5M downloads in a week (ET 2025-10); Hike runs on an old brand plus rewards, with no official backing |
| botim / imo | iOS/Android | Years | India communication #22 / #10 | Focuses on overseas calls, also with large-scale paid acquisition |
| GoChat Messenger | Android / iOS | Years | Not verified | Also "earn coins through chatting to trade for traffic" (gochatapp.net/en/coins). The closest competitor with the same model, but not in India |
| Old Hike (2012–2021) | — | 2012 | 100M registered users | The new Hike's brand, Natasha, and phone-credit referral playbook all come from the original; the tech and team are unrelated |
| Impostor Hike apps | Android | 2026 | Small | PaidFreeDroid posted a warning early in 2026 that several fake Hike apps were on Play. A "Hike App" listing has since been taken down too. |
| Indian incentive / earn-money apps (Roz Dhan, TaskBucks, etc.) | Android | Around 2019 | tens of millions | Earning money by completing tasks is the core. Hike layers the same incentives onto chat. |

### 5. Differentiation

- The product itself is no different from WhatsApp, Telegram, or Arattai. Encryption, groups, calls, stickers, and an AI assistant are all table stakes.

- Only two things are actually different: **① an existing brand Indian users already know** . That skips the hardest part of a cold launch, cutting the cost of awareness and trust, and Kavin's public confirmation adds another layer of endorsement. **② Paying people to chat** . Every task is tied to messaging, calling, or creating groups with other Hike users, so the incentive targets the network density that messaging apps most lack.

- Why it took off: the brand is what made it searchable and safe to install. But the speed of 1M installs and the cross-country chart runs look more like the result of paid acquisition. The rewards system launching late isn't why the first 1M came in. It was there to keep the bought users around and get them to bring friends. The product itself isn't the reason.

### 6. How many people saw it and whether anyone copied it

- **Word spread in small circles** : a nostalgic Indian Instagram account, r/IndiaTech on Reddit, a reply from Kavin (17.5k views), and a line added to Wikipedia. No mainstream media coverage, and no revenue disclosure. There was no revenue model to begin with. Phone credit and coupons are a cost.

- **Followers** : no one has been seen copying the "revive a dead brand + reward chat" playbook yet. The only copies are knockoff Hike apps.

### 7. What to borrow

1. **Acquire a well-known consumer brand that has shut down and relaunch the trademark** . The search traffic and trust come for free. The key is getting the original founder's public confirmation, which settles the "is this a scam?" question in one line.

2. **Tie rewards to actions that require the other person to also be a user** (N messages, N calls of ≥60 seconds, creating a group of N people), instead of rewarding installs alone. The rewards fill the cold-start network density a network-effect product needs. Coins expire after 30 days, with daily/monthly caps and a leaderboard to control costs.

3. In markets like India, redeemable phone credit, data packs, or e-commerce coupons are the most direct reward, and the unit cost is low.

4. Android launched in small charts across India and several Southeast Asian countries at once, trading chart position for organic volume.

### 8. Still unclear

- Whether they paid for acquisition, where it ran, and how much was spent: we have no ad library evidence. This is inferred from the install curve and the cross-country chart runs.

- How many of the Android 1.2M installs are active, how retention looks, and why the Play rating is nearly zero.

- Who is behind Hawk Eye L.L.C-FZ and how it makes money. There are no in-app purchases and no ads. The same account runs the short drama app Hike Cinema, so chat traffic may be funneling into paid short dramas, or the goal may be to build user data and scale for a later funding round or sale.

- Acquisition price and team background.

- Risks of the incentive system: India's regulation of "chat for money," and reward farming by bots and gray-market users. The terms already contain extensive anti-fraud clauses and the right to terminate at any time.

### Sources

- App Store:[apps.apple.com/in/app/hike-messenger/id6778711149](https://apps.apple.com/in/app/hike-messenger/id6778711149) ;iTunes lookup(2026-11-06)

- Google Play:[play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hikeapp](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hikeapp)

- Official site and terms: [hikeapp.com/](https://hikeapp.com/); [hikeapp.com/terms-and-conditions](https://hikeapp.com/terms-and-conditions); [hikeapp.com/mobile/mission_TnC.html](https://hikeapp.com/mobile/mission_TnC.html)

- Companies House:[find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/1…](https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/16882082) (officers / persons-with-significant-control / filing-history)

- Kavin's post on X: [x.com/kavinbm/status/2101961257360539995](https://x.com/kavinbm/status/2101961257360539995)

- Wikipedia:[en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hike_Messenger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hike_Messenger)

- AppInsider:[appinsider.io/apps/hike-messenger-6778711149](https://appinsider.io/apps/hike-messenger-6778711149)

- Fact-check post: [openpromptdatabase.com/p/10b5f95a-9cfb-4232-9e85-e4792c5f495…](https://openpromptdatabase.com/p/10b5f95a-9cfb-4232-9e85-e4792c5f495c)

- Instagram:[www.instagram.com/p/DZrUWbBiLyW/](https://www.instagram.com/p/DZrUWbBiLyW/) ;[www.instagram.com/p/DU8gg13kuQe/](https://www.instagram.com/p/DU8gg13kuQe/) ;[www.instagram.com/reel/DUKRNJyEstx/](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUKRNJyEstx/)

- Reddit:[www.reddit.com/r/IndiaTech/comments/1rzxexj/is_hike_back/](https://www.reddit.com/r/IndiaTech/comments/1rzxexj/is_hike_back/)

- Old Hike referral phone credit rewards: [www.coolztricks.com/2019/03/hike-app-refer-earn-free-paytm-c…](https://www.coolztricks.com/2019/03/hike-app-refer-earn-free-paytm-cash-march-2019.html); [darshangajara.com/2014/03/03/how-to-earn-free-recharge/](https://darshangajara.com/2014/03/03/how-to-earn-free-recharge/)

- Arattai:[m.economictimes.com/tech/technology/arattai-hits-7-5-million…](https://m.economictimes.com/tech/technology/arattai-hits-7-5-million-downloads-as-zoho-backed-messaging-platform-trends-on-social-media-app-charts/articleshow/124320866.cms)

- GoChat:[www.gochatapp.net/en/coins.html](https://www.gochatapp.net/en/coins.html)

- Our data: googleplay (app_profile, app_day, chart_rank, 2026-10-29 to 11-06), appstore (app_profile), metaads / googleads / tiktokads (none tracked)

This article was written by AI from public data and the data we collect daily. Numbers are sourced, and inferences are labeled.