The Canadian company behind popular messaging app Kik has confirmed the free service is to close.
Kik and Kin founder and chief executive Ted Livingston confirmed in a blog post that it was reducing the staff headcount at the Kitchener, Ont., firm to 19, with “over 100 employees impacted.”
Livingston explained that the decision was based on the financial drain caused by its legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over its cryptocurrency Kin.
“These are hard decisions,” Livingstone wrote.
“Kik is one of the largest apps in the US. It has industry leading engagement and is growing again.
“Over 100 employees and their families will be impacted. People who have poured their hearts and souls into Kik and Kin for over a decade.”
Kik was founded in 2009 by a small group of University of Waterloo students. Kik Messenger launched in 2010 and proved popular largely because it lets people register and use it without providing a phone number or other credentials, according to the BBC.
No date has been given for when the free app will close.
Livingstone added that his company will now focus on one thing: “converting Kin users into Kin buyers.”
“After 18 months of working with the SEC the only choice they gave us was to either label Kin a security or fight them in court,” he wrote.
“Becoming a security would kill the usability of any cryptocurrency and set a dangerous precedent for the industry. So with the SEC working to characterize almost all cryptocurrencies as securities we made the decision to step forward and fight.”
Kin has over two million monthly active earners and 600,000 monthly active spenders, he said.
“While losing Kik will have a big impact on these numbers, the continued growth of the Kin Ecosystem has more than made up for it,” Livingstone wrote.
