Kik Messenger, commonly called Kik, is a
freeware
Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the f ...
instant messaging
Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...
mobile app
A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...
from the
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
company Kik Interactive, available on
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
and
Android operating systems.
The application uses a
smartphone
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
's internet connection to transmit and receive messages, photos, videos, sketches, mobile web pages, and other content after users register a username.
Kik is known for its features preserving users' anonymity, such as allowing users to register without the need to provide a telephone number or valid email address. However, the application does not employ
end-to-end encryption
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a system of communication where only the communicating users can read the messages. In principle, it prevents potential eavesdroppers – including telecommunications service providers, telecom providers, Internet ...
, and the company also logs user
IP addresses, which could be used to determine the user's
ISP
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
and approximate location.
This information, as well as "reported" conversations, are regularly surrendered upon request by law enforcement organizations, sometimes without the need for a
court order
A court order is an official proclamation by a judge (or panel of judges) that defines the legal relationships between the parties to a hearing, a trial, an appeal or other court proceedings. Such ruling requires or authorizes the carrying out o ...
.
Kik was originally intended to be a music-sharing app before transitioning to messaging, briefly offering users the ability to send a limited number of
SMS
Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...
text messages directly from the application.
During the first 15 days after Kik's re-release as a
messaging app
Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...
, over 1 million accounts were created. In May 2016, Kik Messenger announced that they had approximately 300 million registered users, and was used by approximately 40% of United States' teenagers.
Kik Messenger was acquired by Medialab in October 2019.
History
Kik Interactive was founded in 2009 by a group of students from the
University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario
Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality ...
in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
who wished to create new technologies for use on mobile smartphones.
Kik Messenger is the first app developed by Kik Interactive, and was released on October 19, 2010. Within 15 days of its release, Kik Messenger reached one million user registrations, with
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
being credited as a catalyst for the new application's popularity.
On November 24, 2010,
Research In Motion
BlackBerry Limited is a Canadian software company specializing in cybersecurity. Founded in 1984, it was originally known as Research In Motion (RIM). As RIM, it developed the BlackBerry brand of interactive pagers, smartphones, and tablet ...
(RIM) removed Kik Messenger from
BlackBerry
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...
App World and limited the functionality of the software for its users. RIM also sued Kik Interactive for
patent infringement
Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may v ...
and misuse of
trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...
s. In October 2013, the companies settled the lawsuit, with the terms undisclosed.
In November 2014, Kik announced a $38.3 million Series C funding round and its first acquisition, buying GIF Messenger "Relay". The funding was from Valiant Capital Partners, Millennium Technology Value Partners, and SV Angel. By this time, Kik had raised a total of $70.5 million.
On August 16, 2015, Kik received a $50 million investment from Chinese Internet giant
Tencent
Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the w ...
, the parent company of the popular Chinese messaging service
WeChat
WeChat () is a Chinese instant messaging, social media, and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. First released in 2011, it became the world's largest standalone mobile app in 2018, with over 1 billion monthly active users. WeChat has bee ...
. The investment earned the company a billion dollar valuation.
Company CEO
Ted Livingston stated Kik's aspirations to become "the WeChat of the West" and said that attracting younger users was an important part of the company's strategy.
In March 2016, the arrest of registered sex offender Thomas Paul Keeler II uncovered more than 200 Kik groups dedicated to the distribution and sale of child pornography on the site. In September 2016, CBS News published a story on the murder of 13-year-old Nicole Lovell, highlighting how easy it was to track and abuse children on kik and calling it a "predator's paradise". Kik released a public statement through CBS on June 3, 2017 stating, "We take online safety very seriously, and we're constantly assessing and improving our trust and safety measures. Nicole Lovell suffered a terrible tragedy and our sincere condolences continue to go out to her family. Since the time of the incident, Kik has taken a variety of proactive measures to help increase safety on our platform." In an online investigation in August 2017,
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...
staffers signed up for the service posing as 14-year-old girls and encountered 20 profiles of charged or sentenced pedophiles. In November 2017, Kik Messenger was silently removed from the Windows Store. As of 23 January 2018, neither the developers nor Microsoft have provided a statement or an explanation on the removal of the app. In January of 2018, Kik updated its Terms of Service and Community Standards to "make Kik a more respectful and fun place". The site also introduced a moderation and trust and safety team to enforce the new community standards.
Also in 2017, Kik decided against more VC funding, instead raising nearly $100 million in a high-profile
initial coin offering
An initial coin offering (ICO) or initial currency offering is a type of funding using cryptocurrencies. It is often a form of crowdfunding, although a private ICO which does not seek public investment is also possible. In an ICO, a quantity of cr ...
(ICO) on the
Ethereum
Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether (Abbreviation: ETH; sign: Ξ) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capita ...
blockchain. In this crowd sale, they sold "Kin" digital tokens to the contributors.
In June 2018, the Kin Coin was officially released on the Kik platform in Beta.
In July 2018, the Kin Foundation released the Kinit beta app on the Google Play store, restricted to US residents only. It offers different ways of earning and spending the Kin coin natively; for example, a user can do simple surveys to earn Kin and spend it on digital goods like gift cards.
In September 2019, Kik's CEO and founder
Ted Livingston, announced in a blog post that Kik Messenger would be shut down on 19 October 2019, with over 100 employees laid off. However this decision was later reversed and in October 2019, Medialab acquired Kik Messenger.
Features
A main attraction of Kik that differentiates it from other messaging apps is its anonymity. To register for the Kik service, a user must enter a first and last name, e-mail address, and birth date (which must show that the user is at least 13 years old
), and select a username. The Kik registration process does not request or require the entry of a phone number (although the user has the option to enter one
[), unlike some other messaging services that require a user to provide a functioning mobile phone number.][
'']The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' has reported that, according to law enforcement, Kik's anonymity features go beyond those of most widely used apps. As of February 2016, Kik's guide for law enforcement said that the company cannot locate user accounts based on first and last name, e-mail address and/or birth date; the exact username is required to locate a particular account. The guide further said that the company does not have access to content or "historical user data" such as photographs, videos, and the text of conversations, and that photographs and videos are automatically deleted shortly after they are sent. A limited amount of data from a particular account (identified by exact username), including first and last name, birthdate, e-mail address, link to a current profile picture, device-related information, and user location information such as the most recently used IP address
An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...
, can be preserved for a period of 90 days pending receipt of a valid order from law enforcement. Kik's anonymity has also been cited as a protective safety measure for good faith users, in that "users have screennames; the app doesn't share phone numbers or email addresses."
Kik introduced several new user features in 2015, including a full-screen in-chat browser that allows users to find and share content from the web; a feature allowing users to send previously recorded videos in Kik Messenger for Android and iOS; and "Kik Codes", which assigns each user a unique code similar to a QR code
A QR code (an initialism for quick response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that can contain information about th ...
, making it easier to connect and chat with other users. Kik joined the Virtual Global Taskforce
Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT) is a group of law enforcement agencies from around the world who operate together to stop online child sex abuse.
The VGT is made up of the following organisations:
*Australian Hi-Tech Crime Centre / Australian Fe ...
, a global anti-child-abuse organization, in March 2015. Kik began using Microsoft's PhotoDNA
PhotoDNA is a proprietary image-identification and content filtering technology widely used by online service providers.
History
PhotoDNA was developed by Microsoft Research and Hany Farid, professor at Dartmouth College, beginning in 2009. ...
in March 2015 to premoderate images added by users. That same month, Kik released native video capture allowing users to record up to 15 seconds in the chat window. In October 2015, Kik partnered with the Ad Council
The Advertising Council, commonly known as the Ad Council, is an American nonprofit organization that produces, distributes, and promotes public service announcements on behalf of various sponsors, including nonprofit organizations, non-governme ...
as part of an anti-bullying campaign. The campaign was featured on the app and Kik released stickers in collaboration with the campaign. Kik released a feature to send GIFs as emojis in November 2015. Kik added SafePhoto to its safety features in October 2016 which "detects, reports, and deletes known child exploitation images" sent through the platform. Kik partnered with ConnectSafely in 2016 to produce a "parents handbook" and joined The Technology Coalition, an anti-sexual exploitation group including Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
, Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
, Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
and LinkedIn
LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...
.
Bots
Kik added promoted chats in 2014, which used bots to converse with users about promoted brands through keywords activating responses. The feature allows companies to communicate with more potential clients than would be possible manually. Promoted messages reach target audiences by gender, country and device. In April 2016, Kik added a bot store to its app, which allows users to order food or products through an automated chat. Third-party companies release bots which will access the company's offerings. The bot shop added a web bubble (also known as "wubbles") feature to allow rich media content to be shared in conversation threads, as well as suggested responses and a feature allowing bots to be active in group threads. An update, released in September 2016, added concierge bots which can give users tips, tutorials, or recommendations within a specific brand.
Security
On November 4, 2014, Kik scored 1 out of 7 points on the Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ci ...
's secure messaging scorecard. Kik received a point for encryption during transit but lost points because communications are not encrypted with a key to which the provider does not have access, users cannot verify contacts' identities, past messages are not secure if the encryption keys are stolen, the code is not open to independent review, the security design is not properly documented, and there had not been a recent independent security audit.
Awards and recognition
On October 1, 2014, Sony Music
Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...
and Kik Interactive were given a Smarties award by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) for their global music marketing campaign with One Direction
One Direction, often shortened to 1D, are an English-Irish pop boy band formed in London in 2010. The group are composed of Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and previously Zayn Malik until his departure from the gr ...
. In October 2016, company CEO Ted Livingston was recognized as Toronto's most brilliant tech innovator by ''Toronto Life
''Toronto Life'' is a monthly magazine about entertainment, politics and life in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ''Toronto Life'' also publishes a number of annual special interest guides about the city, including ''Real Estate'', ''Stylebook'', ''Eatin ...
'' for his work with Kik. Livingston was also recognized for being one of the "Most Creative People in Business" on ''Fast Company
''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year.
History
''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...
''s 2017 list.
Controversies
Minors' use of Kik and explicit content
Like many other social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
services Kik has garnered negative attention due to instances of minors exchanging explicit messages and photos with adults causing law enforcement and the media to frequently express concerns about the app. Automated spam bots have also been used to distribute explicit images and text over Kik Messenger. A state law enforcement official interviewed by ''The New York Times'' in February 2016 identified Kik as "the problem app of the moment". Police said they found Kik's response frustrating and one detective said obtaining information from Kik was a "bureaucratic nightmare". Constable Jason Cullum of Northamptonshire Police
Northamptonshire Police (colloquially known as Northants Police) is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Northamptonshire in the East Midlands of England, in the United Kingdom.
The Northampton Police area includ ...
paedophile online investigation team stated delays in obtaining information from the company increased the risk to children. Cullum stated, "It's incredibly frustrating. We're banging our heads against a brick wall. There's a child that's going to be abused for probably another 12 months before we know who that is." Since its acquisition by Medialab Kik has revamped its policies and launched a variety of tools and resources including a guide for law enforcement and parents.
Prior to 2015, Kik Interactive addressed this issue by informing parents and police about their options to combat child exploitation. In March 2015, the company adopted a more aggressive strategy by utilizing Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
's PhotoDNA
PhotoDNA is a proprietary image-identification and content filtering technology widely used by online service providers.
History
PhotoDNA was developed by Microsoft Research and Hany Farid, professor at Dartmouth College, beginning in 2009. ...
cloud service to automatically detect, delete, and report the distribution of child exploitation images on its app. (Some experts have noted that because PhotoDNA operates by comparing images against an existing database of exploitative images, it does not effectively prevent "realtime" online child abuse
Online child abuse is a unique form of child abuse also known as “Cyber Molestation” due to its virtual, distanced, and anonymous nature. Such abuse may not happen face-to-face, nor does it necessarily require physical contact. However, onlin ...
and may not detect material not yet added to its comparison database.) Kik Interactive also began collaborating internationally with law enforcement by joining the Virtual Global Taskforce
Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT) is a group of law enforcement agencies from around the world who operate together to stop online child sex abuse.
The VGT is made up of the following organisations:
*Australian Hi-Tech Crime Centre / Australian Fe ...
, a partnership between businesses, child protection agencies, and international police services that combats online child exploitation and abuse. The company also sponsors an annual conference on crimes against children.
Kik has been criticized for providing inadequate parental control over minors' use of the app. The ability to share messages without alerting parents has been noted as "one of the reasons why teens like Kik".[ Parents cannot automatically view their child's Kik communications remotely from another device, but instead must have the password to their child's user account and view the communications on the same device used by their child.][ As of February 2016, Kik's parents' guide stresses that teens between 13 and 18 should have a parent's permission to use Kik,] but there is no technical way to enforce the requirement or to guarantee that a minor will not enter a false birthdate.[ Kik Interactive has said that it uses "typical" industry standards for age verification, that "perfect age verification" is "not plausible", and that the company deletes accounts of users under 13 when it finds them, or when a parent requests the deletion.][
]
Open-source module name
In March 2016, Kik Interactive was involved in a high-profile dispute over use of the name "kik" with independent code developer Azer Koçulu, the author of numerous open-source software
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Op ...
modules published on npm, a package manager
A package manager or package-management system is a collection of software tools that automates the process of installing, upgrading, configuring, and removing computer programs for a computer in a consistent manner.
A package manager deals wi ...
widely used by JavaScript
JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of Website, websites use JavaScript on the Client (computing), client side ...
projects to install dependencies. Koçulu had published an extension to Node.js
Node.js is an open-source server environment. Node.js is cross-platform and runs on Windows, Linux, Unix, and macOS. Node.js is a back-end JavaScript runtime environment. Node.js runs on the V8 JavaScript Engine and executes JavaScript code o ...
on npm under the name "kik". Kik Interactive contacted him objecting to his use of the name, for which the company claimed intellectual property rights, and asked him to change the name. When Koçulu refused, Kik Interactive contacted npm management, who agreed to transfer ownership of the module to Kik without Koçulu's consent. Koçulu then unpublished all of his modules from npm, including a popular eleven-line code module called "left-pad" upon which many JavaScript projects depended. Although Koçulu subsequently published left-pad on GitHub
GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continuous ...
, its sudden removal from npm caused many projects (including Kik itself) to stop working, due to their dependency on the Node and Babel packages. In view of widespread software disruption, npm restored Koçulu's left-pad and made Cameron Westland of Autodesk
Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquartered ...
its maintainer. The incident sparked controversies over the assertion of intellectual property rights and the use of dependencies in software development.
Cryptocurrency
Kin __NOTOC__
Kin usually refers to kinship and family.
Kin or KIN may also refer to:
Culture and religion
*Otherkin, people who identify as not entirely human
*Kinism, a white supremacist religious movement
* Kinh, the majority ethnic group of V ...
is an ERC-20 cryptocurrency token issued on the public Ethereum
Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether (Abbreviation: ETH; sign: Ξ) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capita ...
blockchain
A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that consists of growing lists of records, called ''blocks'', that are securely linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a ...
. Kin was first announced in early 2017 which marked a pivot in Kik's strategy, a response to difficulties faced from competing with larger social networks such as Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
. Kin was launched in September 2017 with an initial coin offering
An initial coin offering (ICO) or initial currency offering is a type of funding using cryptocurrencies. It is often a form of crowdfunding, although a private ICO which does not seek public investment is also possible. In an ICO, a quantity of cr ...
(ICO) raising $98 million from 10,000 participants. The purpose of the token is to facilitate value transfers in digital services such as gaming applications and social media, and was initially launched on Kik Messenger to leverage the application's 15 million monthly active users.
The enforcement division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...
considers the cryptocurrency offering to have been an unregulated security issue and is expected to begin legal action against the company. Kik has challenged the SEC's ability to regulate cryptocurrencies.
On September 7, 2017, only days before the Kin ICO, Kik announced that Canadian citizens would be barred from participating, citing weak guidance from the Ontario Securities Commission for the decision.
By 2019 the value of Kin had fallen by 99%.
See also
* Comparison of cross-platform instant messaging clients
The landscape for instant messaging involves cross-platform instant messaging clients that can handle one or multiple protocols. Clients that use the same protocol can typically federate and talk to one another. The following table compares gener ...
References
External links
*
{{Instant messaging
Companies based in Waterloo, Ontario
Instant messaging
Instant messaging clients
Computer-related introductions in 2010
Canadian brands
Ethereum tokens