Last year, Kik founder and CEO Ted Livingston said he intended to make Kik the "WeChat of the West," pointing to the power of Tencent's Weixin to facilitate connections and enable an ecosystem built around messaging. This investment allows Kik to further pursue that goal with the support of Tencent, the company said.
In China, consumers use Weixin not only to talk with friends, but also to facilitate experiences, such as booking taxis, shopping, ordering food deliveries, paying utility bills, playing games, and following celebrities, opinion leaders, and brands. Kik has similar aspirations to build a chat-based ecosystem around its base of American youth. Seventy percent of Kik's 240 million registered users are aged 13-24, and the company claims 40 percent of US teens use its service.
