Hike goes Total retrograde

India’s messenger unicorn, Hike, valued at more than $1 billion, is going back to its roots. Back to telecom, piggybacking on Airtel, in search of new users

Hike's Total app would essentially would allow first-time smartphone users to “use the internet without data”

Total uses one of telecom’s oldest communications protocols, the USSD, with funky smartphone-based user interface on top of it

For Hike, USSD is essentially a means to an end. The idea is to get people to eventually use data, and more importantly, pay for it

The challenge though is that Hike might be trying to solve a problem that doesn’t need solving

First, the details. Earlier this week, on Wednesday, Hike launched a product called ‘Total, built by Hike’. Total is a version of the Android operating system, which the company claims to have “redefined for the next billion users”. In company speak, the app essentially would allow first-time smartphone users to “use the internet without data”. Hike has partnered with three telecom companies (Airtel, Aircel and BSNL) and two of the major low-end smartphone manufacturers (Karbonn and Intex) for Total’s rollout.

At the press conference in New Delhi, Kavin Bharti Mittal, Hike founder & CEO said, “What we did was to take all of Hike’s features—messaging, content and services—and strip it down to less than an MB and embed it on the Android operating system.” In simple words, a first-time smartphone user, using Total, could chat, check cricket scores, read the news, make payments and check horoscopes, among other things.

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Venkat Ananth

Venkat is currently in his tenth year in journalism. Prior to The Ken, he was Deputy Content Editor at Mint as part of the newspaper’s digital team. He also wrote in-depth features on the business of sport for the newspaper. His earlier assignments include Yahoo! (as a columnist) and the Hindustan Times, where he began his career. Born in Mumbai, Venkat holds a Bachelor of Mass Media (Journalism) degree from SIES College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Mumbai and a Master of Arts degree in International Studies from Goldsmiths, University of London. He currently resides in New Delhi, where he moved nearly five years ago.

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