Publishers’ newest platform darling: Kik
Kik’s pitch is that it’s unlike other messaging services in that users opt in to conversations with brands and publishers, and they can’t push content to people unless the user has initiated a conversation with them (with the exception that publishers may send one general blast a week to their existing user base).
Kik claims 200m users, 70 per cent of whom are between 13-25. (ComScore’s figures are far lower, at 16.4m uniques, of which 42 per cent are 18-24.)
There are 60 publishers and brands including 16 Handles and Teva using the platform, and Kik says its opt-in nature has led to high user-engagement rates with them. Ten million of its 200m users have opted in to communicate with those brands, with an average of 9.4 messages sent per conversation.
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