Hike messenger has announced acquisition of a free voice-calling company – Zip Phone. Hike says the acquisition is aimed at expanding Hike’s product range in the Internet-based communication space. Zip Phone has developed a voice-calling app, which works globally.
Commenting on the growth and acquisition, Kavin Bharti Mittal, Founder and CEO, hike messenger, says, “From day one we’ve strongly believed that through communication, we can bring India online. With the acquisition we take one more step towards that mission. Zip Phone’s technology will allow us to bring free voice calling to the market much faster. Incidentally, this is one of the top requested features from our users as well. We can't wait to launch this on hike."
Anuj Jain, Founder, Zip Phone says, “As a start-up enthusiast, I had been keeping a close eye on hike and its developments and I am excited to now be a part of one of the biggest and fastest growing startups in the Indian Internet space and finally, building for India.”
It's notable WhatsApp is also rumoured to launch voice calling feature to compete with the likes of BBM and Skype.
Hike has been focussing on localised features. It already offers Hike Offline – lets you message your friends even when they’re offline, Hidden Mode– allows users to hide their private chats with a password, Regional Stickers – helps users express more in their own language, amongst many others.