Wait, what? How did yet another instant messenger client get a million users in 2 weeks?
When teens text thousands of times a week and texts cost $1000+/MB, are you surprised?
Zero to a Million Users in 15 Days
11–20 of 77 posts
Re: Zero to a Million Users in 15 Days
#12My girlfriend and I use Kik, for us it was a BBM alternative after I got an Android phone.
And we've been using it longer than 15 days, so to me the headline/graph is misleading. They just released a complete overhaul so they reached a million users on v2 of their software, but how many did v1 have?
Re: Zero to a Million Users in 15 Days
#13Ok so I just read every article I could find about these guys online - could somebody explain why a user would install kik over standard text messaging or IM?
There must be something to it, I just don't know what.
If it wasn't for the buzz, it is a product website I would just brush past without a second glance
Re: Zero to a Million Users in 15 Days
#14My startup was in the same incubator space as Kik up until 3 weeks ago (we just moved out,) and it's really amazing to see these guys finally take off. They have some amazing stuff in the pipeline that's going to blow everyone away. Funny thing is, they are literally across the hall from Enflick, which is another IM startup that's wildly successful.
I'm in another startup that moved out of the AC a few months ago. We've never really been sure what Kik does or what they're up to, but they always seem to have a lot of people in there working round the clock. Nice to see the fruits of it—and good for them.
Re: Zero to a Million Users in 15 Days
#15I got a txt from a friend about kik signup yesterday. Not sure if he knew that was sent or not.
Re: Zero to a Million Users in 15 Days
#16Wait, what? How did yet another instant messenger client get a million users in 2 weeks?
Bot-generated accounts?
I don't think so. Look how many people are talking about it on twitter: http://twitter.com/search?q=kik
I also know Ted and he's not the type to make up numbers for attention. Keep in mind that they've been working on some variation of this for over a year, so while they took off virally very quickly, it's not an "overnight success", it's a "hard work finally pays off" one.
Re: Zero to a Million Users in 15 Days
#17A name is really important for a startup to take off. Kik.com kicks ass, instead of 'socialmsgr.im' My only advice to entrepreneurs is: pick a great name. Delivering a great product is just mandatory.
Not really that a great product is mandatory, but simple, easy to pronounce names when combined with simple and easy to use apps usually equals success. It's also important that the name can be attributed to the people using the app (Kiksters, Tweeters, Googler etc), and the actions can come from the name as well (Kiks, Tweets, Google it). Also leave room for apps using your api (if you have one) to take advantage of your name, (Twitpic, etc). Combining all that when picking a name really helps.
Re: Zero to a Million Users in 15 Days
#18My girlfriend and I use Kik, for us it was a BBM alternative after I got an Android phone. And we've been using it longer than 15 days, so to me the headline/graph is misleading. They just released a complete overhaul so they reached a million users on v2 of their software, but how many did v1 have?
strange
quoting the blog post "We re-launched Kik Messenger 15 days ago with 0 users"
Re: Zero to a Million Users in 15 Days
#19Ok so I just read every article I could find about these guys online - could somebody explain why a user would install kik over standard text messaging or IM? There must be something to it, I just don't know what. If it wasn't for the buzz, it is a product website I would just brush past without a second glance
Because it is essentially Blackberry Messenger for all smartphones.
Many people only use Blackberry because of the speed and D/R status of BBM regardless of how they feel about the device.
Re: Zero to a Million Users in 15 Days
#20Firstly, this is awfully impressive. Kudos to the Kik team!
I'd love to know more here. Out of these 1,000,000 users, how many of these are actual activated users? After 15 days, what's the retention like? Where are all of these users coming from, and how does the origin of the user affect activation and retention?
One lesson that we've been learning the hard way is that it's one thing to acquire users, and it's another thing entirely to convert a new user into a long-term, engaged customer. I'd love to hear how Kik is approaching that, given their success in acquisition.