
Zero to a Million Users in 15 Days - bjonathan
http://www.kik.com/blog/2010/11/zero-to-a-million-in-15-days/
======
ted_livingston
Hi All,

Ted from Kik. Just wanted to jump in and answer a few questions:

On October 21, 2010 we launched a completely new service. The only thing that
was the same between new Kik and old Kik was the name and the app store
accounts. Users from the old system (about 55K active in the last week before
the hard switch over) were notified that the new service was available and
that the old one would soon be shut down. About 23K did get the upgrade, but
almost all of them dropped it immediately due to losing all of their contacts
from the old system, and the now lack of built in SMS texting. You can see
this in the graphs - a brief peak, followed by a multi day flat line. I really
apologize if this is misleading, it was not intentional.

The numbers. They are real. We can hardly believe it ourselves. The app is
built to be incredibly viral (more on that later), but we _never_ spam any of
your contacts. All that happens is on registration, we do a quick one time,
secure scan to let you know who on Kik you might know. That's it. Nothing is
ever stored or shared, and nobody outside Kik will ever hear even a peep that
you have joined Kik (unless, of course, you tell them, which a lot of people
seem to be doing!) From there, people keep using it because they really like
it. It is a bit hard to understand or explain (well, not as hard as Twitter I
guess, but still) so it is probably best to just use the app for a bit. You
will see why people like it.

We are moving as fast as possible to scale the servers, and add features. As
noted below, we've been working on our vision for almost two years now, and
this is just the first step. Expect some pretty cool things to come, and until
then, thank you for letting us share in this incredible ride.

Ted

~~~
mhartl
I have a quick suggestion for blog posts like this: don't assume that readers
have any idea what it is you do. Take the opportunity in the first paragraph
to describe what your product is and why people use it. That way, people
coming to your post who aren't already users will be oriented immediately.
They will, I suspect, also be more likely to use your product.

~~~
geuis
I concur. I spent 5 minutes reading through the site and I have zero idea what
this Kik thing really is. If it's yet another closed service I'm expected to
sign up for, no thanks.

------
terryjsmith
This story is completely mis-leading. They certainly had users before 15 days
ago [1]. The product was developed in an incubator in the Winter 2009 class
[2]. They have relaunched and revamped it, but to start from a clean slate and
say you had zero users with no disclosure or information about your past makes
this story blatantly false. It's a shame because it still would have been a
good story without the reset.

[1] [http://www.startupnorth.ca/2010/11/03/has-kik-finally-
arrive...](http://www.startupnorth.ca/2010/11/03/has-kik-finally-arrived/)

[2] <http://velocity.uwaterloo.ca/alumni/kik-at-blackberry-devcon>

~~~
karanbhangui
From what I understand, there is no connection between the old application and
the new one. So it's not as misleading as you portray.

~~~
terryjsmith
The application is actually just revamped as I understand it (based on the
above review by Startup North); maybe in a major way but still based on a
previous product. As Ted from Kik has responded below, they e-mailed nearly
all of their 55K previous users, though very very few of them converted.

Their history deserves mentioning and is likely what put them in a position to
be able to launch, market and scale effectively. The users may not be the
same, but the strategies and the tactics used to get there are likely based on
previous experiences as well as having some great people get them this far.

Obviously this community isn't the target of their post, but I would be even
more interested in hearing the whole story: how they went from zero to 55K
customers in 7 months, lost almost all of them, and then scaled it back up to
a million users in two weeks

------
tbgvi
My 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?

~~~
bjonathan
strange

quoting the blog post "We re-launched Kik Messenger 15 days ago with 0 users"

------
tapz
How much did you pay for the domain name? Afaik a 3 letters .com is really
really expensive...

------
swombat
Wait, what? How did yet another instant messenger client get a million users
in 2 weeks?

~~~
Groxx
Bot-generated accounts?

~~~
tommi
I would suspect that as well or by counting relationships instead of actual
accounts. Let's ask them: [http://www.kik.com/blog/2010/11/zero-to-a-million-
in-15-days...](http://www.kik.com/blog/2010/11/zero-to-a-million-
in-15-days/#comment-255)

~~~
bjonathan
I dont think so, my facebook feed is currently assaulted by friends asking and
sharing their KIK ID (and none of them is a geek or an early adopter usually)

------
emilepetrone
Wait, a site got to a million users without being featured on Techcrunch?

------
bl4k
Ok 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

~~~
executive
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.

~~~
minalecs
I'm not familiar with BBM , but it appears Kik works for Iphone, Android and
Blackberry. The only significance I can see between using something like IM
client, available on all these clients, is letting you know if message was
read or not. Is there anything else, significant about BBM ?

------
sdizdar
Congratulation to Kik. Great!

But I'm concern about this service and privacy. It uses same tactic as Buzz
(which tactic I didn't like).

Here is my understanding - please correct me if I'm wrong:

First, Kik ties in a person's username with their email address. Kik then
sorts through the person's addressbook to find potential friends. This is
kinda privacy issue because a user may not want someone that is in their
addressbook to know they have a Kik account. But other people (my stock
broker, tax consultant) will because if they have your email address then they
also have your Kik username without authorization or adding that person to
your friends list.

Is there a way to disable the above approach - maybe to ask which people will
see you on Kik?

------
yblokhin
Hey Guys,

Those are actually real accounts backed by unique emails. We haven't expected
such a viral growth ourselves but.. we don't complain :) Other than complete
lack of sleep due to the scaling needs.

Hence my question: are there any brilliant server developers looking for a job
with Kik? :)

~~~
piotrSikora
You should really define "server developer", otherwise you'll end-up with
offers ranging from "bash scripting" through "rails backend developers" to "C
developers".

------
chadp
Cool they did it. I was expecting an article on HOW they did it!

~~~
physcab
Build an awesome product that everyone wants?

~~~
kristiandupont
[http://jasonlbaptiste.com/featured-articles/if-you-build-
it-...](http://jasonlbaptiste.com/featured-articles/if-you-build-it-they-wont-
come/)

------
kin
Congrats to the Kik team!

When I first heard of Kik, I thought it to be somewhat repetitive. There are
tons of apps just like it. But, the viral nature of the app sold me. The fact
that contacts are automatically added allow me to use the app immediately.

The next steps for Kik are crucial. People are going to have a problem with
being so accessible to people they don't know. The ability to block users
might arise conflict with "Why did you block me on Kik?" I'm interested to see
how they handle these issues. On top of that, they're adding image support,
which I think is a pretty hefty dent on their servers.

Again, congrats on the growth, but good luck with keeping your users! As of
right now, it took me a whole minute to send a Kik message out. I'm sticking
to Blackberry Messenger for now, which by the way is an amazing client minus
lack of cross-mobile platform availability.

------
Kilimanjaro
A 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.

~~~
stagas
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.

------
axiom
My 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.

~~~
bjonathan
Do you know what was their marketing plan to launch Kik?

------
Sthorpe
One small request. On iphone signup, don't have the password field in visible
text.

~~~
crocowhile
I actually wish password fields would ALWAYS be visible by default on all
mobile apps.

~~~
phob
You're not concerned about people looking over your shoulder?

~~~
crocowhile
I am pretty sure all the apps I have on my phone require login only once and
never again. I'd just avoid to login that one time in a crowded place and the
risk is gone.

------
AlexPD
Can really see why you'd use this, except for being able to see when somebody
has read your message - which personally I hate because then people will be on
my back wondering why I didn't reply right away. That's a reason I wouldn't
use it.

I use a multi-protocol IM client on my phone, which has a constant link in the
background to my GTalk, Windows Live Messenger, AIM, Skype, etc. - That way
people can IM me any time from whatever platform they're currently on, whether
it be computer, phone, browser, etc. But with Kik they have to be on a phone
as well? That's really a step backwards, if they're sitting at their computer,
logged into 5 separate IM clients already, and then have to pick up their
phone to IM me. But it has obvious solutions.

~~~
ugh
It’s a big problem for me that there are no good multi-protocol IM apps for
iOS. To say nothing of the general horridness of all single-protocoll IM apps
(Sykpe excluded).

I could understand that a great IM app could have some draw.

~~~
msh
meebo does multi-protocol, they support most protocols except for skype.

------
codypo
Firstly, 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.

------
mike-cardwell
Do you keep a record of messages sent between accounts? Do you keep a record
of the actual message content? If so, how long do you keep it for, and why?

------
alex1
I wonder why Ping or WhatsApp wasn't able to get this viral. The only viral
feature I saw is when I installed it, it went through my contact list (I'm
assuming) and found all my friends that already have it installed. Others were
able to find me even though I didn't enter my phone number when signing up.
Weird.

~~~
mdon
Have either of them published subscriber numbers or growth rates?

------
rane
Having just read the book Influence by Cialdini, this strikes me as perfect
use of the social proof principle, regardless of if the numbers are real of
not. "Hey, this app has a million users, it must be pretty good".

Personally, I couldn't register. Keeps saying I have no network yet other apps
work fine.

------
scalyweb
I'm impressed with the product and it's a great idea. But I find it hard to
believe that privacy issues on social networks are so difficult to solve. Upon
sign-up with Kik, your contact address list is mined and those contacts are
then e-mailed. C'mon developers, I know the idea is to make it as easy as
possible for monetization with advertisers later but how about putting some
more effort into respecting my wishes not to get me into hot water with the
real people I know.

You help me and I'll help you but leave it up to me to tell my friends about
it.

I'm sure I read the following on HN just a few days ago talking about similar
privacy concerns with social platforms:

"If your privacy practices aren't transparent, then you introduce doubt. Doubt
leads to lower usage."

~~~
ted_livingston
Can you please forward us an email one of your contacts received, and post it
up here? We'd be interested to see what it says :)

------
blntechie
One thing about social apps is that once your friends all are signed up to a
new product and settled in there, there is no purpose for you alone to
different be in a different app. You wont' have the social part in it. Kik,
with it's whatever marketing seems to be got popular with many people and it
might become defacto for them for near future. And it will get tough for
everyone to move to an alternate app. As many of your friends start using Kik,
you will start using Kik, Facebook/Twitter anyone?

~~~
minalecs
I believe on the smart mobile apps area it works a little differently. I've
seen apps like Fring, Tango, and Textplus.. all appear on the top of the apps
market, and what appears to be significant downloads. I think in general
people will download apps just for the sake of trying and use it, but apps
that get any long term usage is far and few.

------
paraschopra
Great job guys. This one nails the point that if you make an awesome service,
people _will_ flock to it. Who expected an IM service to become a verb so
soon? (Reference: I am just reading few Twitter messages
<http://twitter.com/search?q=kik> and they all typing in - 'kik, IM, DM or
email me'). This is fantastic. Good luck!

------
gxs
I'm really afraid this type of user sign up is going to begin taking a hold of
new apps on mobile devices.

It's one thing for me to receive emails from friends inviting me to try a new
service they're using, but it's really intrusive to receive txts from kik
telling me to sign up every time someone I know installs the app.

------
savrajsingh
I got a txt from a friend about kik signup yesterday. Not sure if he knew that
was sent or not.

~~~
marcc
Agreed. I am a little concerned that as soon as I signed up, it sent messages
to everyone I might know. The key word being "might". I didn't know too many
of their suggestions.

~~~
ryanhuff
This is the kind of marketing strategy that turns me off to a service. Linked-
in does it too. I get invite invitations from people that I am already linked
with, but where they have another of my email addresses in their address book
that is different than my Linked-in email.

------
sendos
How is this different or better than other instant messaging apps for
smartphones?

~~~
ithkuil
I have the same question. It's not actually clear from the website what they
are offering.

Who knows, since I'm curious I could perhaps download the app and make an
account and then find out that it's not what I thought it was, but I would be
counted as +1 users in this million... Wonder how many people did that.

------
jonknee
On the App Store page Kik notes:

"This is just the start. The next step is adding free (legal) music sharing,
and it will be sweet. Really sweet."

Curious. I guess they aren't happy with sticking to messaging and will keep
adding social features.

------
Raphael
I'm curious why the Kik team decided to create 3 mobile clients before a
Windows or web client. Is Kik aimed at children and teens with parents that
access their kids' online accounts?

------
carbocation
My friends are pimping this on facebook hardcore right now. Non-tech people,
especially. Strong work, ladies and gentlemen. I call it "crackberry for the
iPhone."

~~~
iuguy
How does this compare to whatsapp messenger? My wife spends half her life on
it and it seems pretty identical.

~~~
carbocation
Hmm, not sure. I hadn't heard of whatsapp before your comment.

