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Kavin Bharti Mittal, founder and CEO of Hike has announced that the popular gaming and messaging app is shutting down. In a long LinkedIn post, Mittal announced that app is shutting down globally.
In a reflective post titled “Closing a Chapter, Opening a New One”, Mittal cited shifting market dynamics and regulatory challenges as key reasons behind the decision.The shut down of Hike is followed by the recent online real-money gaming ban imposed by the Indian government. Hike pivoted from its original messaging app to real money gaming in 2021. Mittal acknowledged that after the imposed ban it was not the best decision to keep on investing in the platform. Once regarded as a WhatsApp rival, Hike attracted millions of users and was backed by investors like Tecent and Softbank.In his LinkedIn post, Mittal expressed gratitude to the team and community, writing: “We gave it everything we had. We learned, we grew, and now it’s time to move on.” He also hinted at future ventures, saying he’s “excited to build again”.
Read Kavin Bharti Mittal’s complete LinkedIn post here
After regrouping with our investors and the team, I’ve made the difficult decision to wind down Hike completely.
Our US business, launched just nine months ago, is off to a strong start. But after the
India ban, scaling globally would require a full recap, a reset that is not the best use of capital or time.
The Big Question → We could raise the capital, but the real question is: is it worth it? Is this a climb worth pivoting for? For the first time in 13 years, my answer is no. Not for me, not for my team, and not for our investors. Why?
- RMG was never the destination. It was a way to test unit economics and traction in India while working toward a bigger vision. In hindsight, starting in India locked us into the model and regulatory headwinds, turning a temporary path into a more permanent one.
- The Gaming Nation vision is real, but we may be too early. The world will eventually move toward a Nation-type model in gaming and Web3 - Company 2.0. But crypto regulation is still developing globally, and we don’t want to repeat India, where we hoped for clarity that never came.
- And most importantly, if doing a full reset, is this where I’d put my own capital and energy today? For the first time, the answer is no. The world has changed in the last decade - and so have I. There are more important problems to solve and bigger opportunities to deploy brilliant talent and capital.
Looking Back & Lessons
The last 13 years have been immense. Hike Messenger reached 40M MAUs and became the 35th most loved consumer brand in India at its peak. With Rush, we built a new kind of Casual PvP gaming platform and scaled it to 10M users and $500M+ in gross revenue (CEA) in just 4 years.
Our execution was super, but we could never quite make it stick. There are clear lessons to carry forward, especially on market selection:
- Be careful with winner-take-all markets. To win, you need to go global.
- Don’t build for today’s constraints. Build on the spring/summer of new technologies.
- Regulatory clarity matters. Risk is fine; uncertainty is not.
More importantly momentum is everything. And build what your heart and mind are deeply excited about. It’s the conviction that carries you through.
This is both a disappointment and a hard outcome. But I choose to look on the bright side: the learnings are invaluable, and my conviction for what’s next is even stronger.
To everyone who has been part of this journey - our users, our team, our investors, and our community - thank you. As a CEO, you’re only as strong as your team, and I want to give a special shout-out to mine - an incredible group of people who gave this everything
.
This chapter ends, but the climb continues.
Looking Forward
I’ve always thrived at building at the forefront of technology. Over the last decade, in the little time I had to explore outside of Hike, I kept returning to the same three frontiers. And now, they feel like the great canvases for decades to come →
- AI → For the first time, technology has both intelligence and memory. Imagine products that don’t just serve us functionally but truly know us - systems that adapt, grow, and partner with us. As a UX-first builder, this is the most exciting time to be building software.
- Breakthroughs in Energy → Human progress has always been bound by energy. The world’s demand for energy is rising faster than ever. Breakthrough approaches, especially in physics are needed to power the future. The last century gave us mastery of fine matters and electricity, the next will move deeper, at the intersection of science and spirituality - into what yogis call divine magnetism and physicists call the quantum world or electromagnetism. From there will come technologies that today feel impossible to imagine.
- Mastery of the Self → As AI takes on more of our work, a deeper question will rise: what now defines us? When productivity is no longer the measure of worth, humanity will turn inward. Man’s evolution will move from the intellect to intuitive attunement - a deeper connection with ourselves and the divine (which we’ll realise are one and the same). The tools, spaces, and guides that help us explore this inner world will be as transformative as any innovation in the outer one - unlocking the next level of humanity’s potential
If you put these together, a picture emerges: → the cost of intelligence trending to zero → the cost of energy trending to zero → and the cost of willpower falling lower and lower.
Just imagine a future where willpower is infinite, energy is abundant, and intelligence is at our fingertips.
This is the future I will help build — and it’s where I’ll be contributing in the decades to come. This new chapter will look very different from the last one
🚀
- Kavin
English (US) ·