Ted Livingston (born 1987) is founder of

Kik Messenger Kik Messenger, commonly called Kik, is a freeware instant messaging mobile app from the Canada, Canadian company Kik Interactive, available on iOS and Android (operating system), Android operating systems. The application uses a smartphone's int ...

that provides mobile messaging service.

Early life

Livingston was born in Toronto. As a child, Livingston had a passion for building

Lego Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlocking ...

structures and automated machines in his basement. He continues following this interest on the school

robotics Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrat ...

team. From 1997 to 2005, Livingston attended the Crescent School, in Toronto. He later stated that Crescent "provided an education which couldn't be more perfect for me as an individual. It allowed me to grow and develop my own philosophies and directions in life."

2005–Present: UWaterloo and Kik

Livingston took a

mechatronics Mechatronics engineering also called mechatronics, is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering that focuses on the integration of mechanical, electrical and electronic engineering systems, and also includes a combination of robotics, electronics, ...

bachelor's degree at 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 ...

from 2005 to 2009 in order to "pursue his dream of building robots." He participated in the Waterloo co-op program there, with placements at

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

and the

City of Toronto government The municipal government of Toronto ( incorporated as the City of Toronto) is the local government responsible for administering the city of Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a rec ...

. Livingston eventually landed a co-op position as a

system engineering Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management that focuses on how to design, integrate, and manage complex systems over their life cycles. At its core, systems engineering utilizes systems thinking ...

project coordinator at

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 ...

. In December 2007, eight months into his co-op, Livingston was promoted by Research in Motion to "Technical Product Management Coordinator". In 2008, he turned down a full-time job to return to school at the advice of his manager. Back at Waterloo, Livingston decided to take part in the Velocity program, a startup-focused community where he founded

instead of completing his degree. Kik now competes with

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 ...

and

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 ...

, boasts over 275 million registered users, and is used by approximately 40 percent of American teens. 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 ...

recently invested $50 million into Kik, placing its value at $1 Billion. In 2014,

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 ...

placed him on their "Top 30 under 30" in their technology list. In November 2015, Torontolife ranked Livingston at #20 on their "Toronto's 50 Most Influential,".

References

Mobile computers Living people 1987 births Canadian chairpersons of corporations {{Canada-business-bio-stub