By
Steve Muchoki
April 16th, 2024
Despite the battle against the US SEC Kik will not shut down. It has been announced that Kik is going to struggle for its existence.
At the end of September, we reported that a popular messaging app Kik made the world reel with the announcement about shutting down. At that time, Kik CEO Ted Livingston explained this decision with the company’s downturn position and the necessity to focus more on the development of its Kin (KIN) token. The company was also planning to cut down the number of its employees from over 100 people to a 19 person team. Besides, Kik has a legal battle against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which dramatized Kik’s business even more.
To remind of the SEC lawsuit, Kik was sued by the US regulating agency for conducting an illegal $100 million securities offering of digital tokens. The SEC charged that Kik sold the tokens to U.S. investors without registering their offer and sale as the U.S. securities laws require.
The company had two options: either to label Kin security or fight the Commission in court. The choice preference was battle, however, working on Kin development will also continue.
Admittingthat the decision was really a hard one, Livingston said:
“But no matter what happens to Kik, Kin is here to stay. Kin operates on an open, decentralized infrastructure run by a dozen independent companies. Kin is a currency used by millions of people in dozens of independent apps. So while the SEC might be able to push us around, taking on the broader Kin Ecosystem will be a much bigger fight. And the Ecosystem is close to adding a lot more firepower.”
On September 27, Kik X beta was scheduled to take place the last time, and everybody was setting their heart on Kik’s shutting down on October 19. But yesterday, an announcement from the company gave new hope to its supporters: Kik wrote on its Twitter that it is going to stay. The post was met with joyfulness.
Great news: Kik is here to stay!!!!AND there’s some really exciting plans for making the app even better. More details coming soon. Stay tuned. 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
— Kik (@Kik) October 13, 2019
This tweet follows an announcement made by Ted Livingston on October 7:
Some exciting news: we may have found a home for Kik! We just signed an LOI with a great company. They want to buy the app, continue growing it for our millions of users, and take the Kin integration to the next level. Not a done deal yet, but could be a great win win. More soon https://t.co/SeLjf9bEaG
— Ted Livingston (@ted_livingston) October 7, 2019
Kik seems to be dead set on its existential struggle, and hopefully, the company will win a skirmish.
About Kik
Let us remind you that Kik is a cross-platform mobile application developed by the Canadian company Kik Interactive and used for instant messaging in 230 countries. Being one of the most popular messengers in the US, it has over 300 million registered users, about 40% of them are US teenagers.
In 2017, Kik entered the crypto industry and launched an ICO, where it managed to raise $100 million from the sale of its Kin tokens. To popularize the tokens, Kik partnered with Unity Technologies to allow game developers to use Kin cryptocurrency to rewards the players.