Hike Messenger

Despite becoming a hit early on thanks to quirky stickers and a privacy feature that let teenagers hide chats from parents, Hike's messenger app overtime failed to challenge the popularity of WhatsApp

Here's a selection of Business Standard opinion pieces for the day

India's first home-grown messenger app Hike shut down and vanished from app stores on Monday

Homegrown instant messaging app Hike Messenger, later known as Hike Sticker Chat, has been officially shut down

The startup valued at $1.4 billion in a 2016 funding round announced its app was going off the air earlier this month without explanation

Mobile messaging platform Hike on Thursday said all its employees will work from home throughout this year and the company will spend up to Rs 40,000 per staffer

While we are inspired by WeChat heavily, we want to take all that forward and localise for the Indian market, says Kavin Mittal

Hike was launched in Dec 2012, acquired a user base of over 100 million as of January 2016

The Hike app makes conversations and moments much more creative, fun and exciting

The beta version of the app's video calling feature will be available to all its Android users by the end of this week

Hike Messenger recently raised $175 million in a new round of funding at a valuation of $1.4 billion from investors

Its existing investors SoftBank Group, Bharti Enterprises and Tiger Global also participated in the fourth round of funding

This is the 4th venture capital round and the biggest to date for Hike

Mother's Day falls on May 8 this year.