Kik Messenger app to close

Kik Messenger is shutting down despite the service that has millions of active users around the world.

The company has announced the closure of the courier service to focus on the cryptocurrency Kin also created.

In a blog, Kik Interactive said the decision was taken by force through a legal dispute with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Kin.

The decision also means that 80 staff members who run Kik will be fired.

No date has been given for closing the Kik application.

Kik Messenger was launched in 2010 and has proven popular largely because it allows people to register and use it without providing a phone number or phone number. other identification information.

The app has also been the subject of controversy and a BBC News survey in 2018 suggested that she had figured in 1,100 sexual abuse cases against children in the UK on which the police had investigated in the last five years.

In response, Kik said that he "constantly evaluated and improved his confidence and security measures."

Cash Community

Ted Livingstone, founder of Kik Interactive, said the company had made the "tough decision" to close Kik, as she wanted to devote all her attention to cryptocurrency Kin.

By closing Kik and downsizing to 19 employees, the company could reduce its overhead by 85 percent, he said, which would give him a much better chance of winning the legal battle against the SEC.

He acknowledged that the decision would be difficult because it would involve the dismissal of people who had families and "poured their hearts and souls into Kik and Kin for more than ten years".

The legal line exploded because the SEC wanted the launch of Kin crypto-cash to be classified in the same way as the initial stock offering for companies that were listed on the stock exchange.

At the launch of Kin, Kik Interactive had announced an "unregistered" stock offering of $ 100 million.

Mr. Livingstone said that he had to resist Kin's "security" qualification, as this categorization would "kill" his usability and that of other similar crypto-cash systems.

"We made the decision to take a step forward and fight," he said.

In addition to fighting in court, Kik Interactive will also be using to convert the millions of existing Kin users into more active customers and shoppers, Livingstone said.

Kin currently had two million "active workers a month" and 600,000 "active consumers a month".

And if the number of Kin users increased significantly, it would be much harder for the SEC to enforce it.

"Together we will win," said Livingstone.