A few weeks after the acquisition of US-based voice-calling company Zip Phone, India’s Hike today announced its free voice calling feature that works over 2G, 3G, or wifi. Hike’s voice calling is now in beta on the Android version of the app; it’ll arrive on iOS and Windows phones by the end of this quarter.
With the slow mobile internet in India and a small percentage of mobile users accessing 3G and 4G, Hike aims to please the mass market with the app’s low bandwidth consumption.
“India is a very cost sensitive market and as a result we’ve ensured that our service is extremely efficient on data. It means our users can pack in more minutes per MB when calling on Hike,” said Kavin Bharti Mittal, founder and CEO of Hike.
The app also offers an option to convert messages into SMS for users who are not connected to the internet. The reply from an offline source is converted into a Hike message to continue the chat seamlessly.
Launched in December 2012, Hike has raised US$86 million in funding rounds led by Tiger Global Management and Bharti SoftBank (BSB), a joint venture of Bharti Enterprises and Japan’s Softbank Corporation.
Last year, Hike grabbed the number one spot on Google Play and iOS App Store in India. The user base has grown to 35 million but Whatsapp continues to be the market leader with 70 million active users in India.
Indian telco Airtel proposed plans to charge separately for VoIP services offered by apps like Hike. Although the plan is on hold following a backlash from the consumers, the telecom operator is waiting for a regulatory framework to be put in place.
See: Despite WhatsApp’s dominance in India, investors still bet on local chat apps like Hike
Editing by Paul Bischoff
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