Kik has had its ups and downs since it was founded in 2009. The company has stayed innovative, and has come up with creative ways to keep its users involved. While my research shows that the company is doing well it has fallen in recent years from where it orginally was when it first hit the messenger app scene.

Kik is no longer in its “On the Rise” portion of its life cycle because it has already gone through its first round of venture capital funding, it has seen its name all over the media, and its early adapters have already come and gone. The company appeared to be “At its Peak” in 2012 when revenue was at its all-time high. It has also went through its “Sliding into the Trough” stage in the not too distant past when the messenger app market saw an increase of messaging apps.

It is my belief that Kik is now in its “Climbing the Slope” stage where it has identified its best practices and methodologies. Many of its users are just now seeing the abundance of uses Kik’s applications can provide to help them connect to others. Many different companies are now using Kik to fill up user’s message spaces with advertising and product knowledge. Kik has identified their target market and have done an amazing job reaching and impressing upon them. Kik has now set achievable goals and is steadily improving on its technology and processes as they go. They are also one of the leader’s in bot platforms, and they have designed their app to be safe and user friendly. All of these attributes point to the “Climbing the Slope” stage of Kik’s hype cycle.

I do feel that they are at the beginning of this stage and have plenty of space to go up before they start plateauing in their productivity. The biggest threat that I see Kik having in today’s market is their competitions resources. To stay innovative and relevant they will have to continue to invest in new technologies that will keep them competitive and unfortunately for them they can’t keep up with apps like FB Messenger and WhatsApp at the moment

For more information on the Hype Cycle click the link: https://thinkgrowth.org/one-thing-everybody-forgets-about-gartners-hype-cycle-ecfe7e9de8ff