Kik Messaging App Abruptly Shuts Down

The instant messaging app Kik shut down once and for all over the weekend, leaving some users in [...]

By Michael Hein

The instant messaging app Kik shut down once and for all over the weekend, leaving some users in mourning. The app ended its services on Friday, Sept. 27 amid a massive lawsuit with the SEC, giving little notice ahead of time.

Kik Interactive announced that the Kik Messenger and Kik Messenger mobile app would soon shut down on Monday, giving users just five days to prepare. The company's CEO, Ted Livingston, announced the closure in a public release on Medium, explaining that the dealings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission were simply too costly to carry on.

Kik Interactive was served a lawsuit from the SEC back in June, but the story really goes back to 2017. At the time, Kik sold digital tokens known as "Kin" as a kind of digital monetary asset, not dissimilar to cryptocurrency. However, Kin tokens were never registered with the SEC.

The lawsuit noted that none of the required disclosures were made ahead of Kik's initial coin offering, or ICO. Federal securities laws require a good deal of communication before a digital currency like this is launched, and in today's cryptocurrency-crazed climate, the SEC comes down hard on offenders.

In his explanation to users, Livingston admitted that Kik executives simply underestimated the SEC's response to Kin. He said that the company did not predict "the tactics they would employ," saying that they took "our quotes out of context to manipulate the public to view us as bad actors." He also claimed the SEC "pressure[d] exchanges not to list Kin," and drew "out a long and expensive campaign to drain our resources."

Still, Livingston described Kin as "the most used cryptocurrency in the world. By far," and pledged that the money would not disappear altogether. Instead, Kik Interactive has reduced its staff to "an elite 19 person team" that "will focus on one thing: converting Kin users into Kin buyers."

This massive layoff necessitated the closure of the Kik Messenger app, according to Livingston. His statement noted that over 100 employees were "impacted," presumably noting the number of layoffs in the company. From there, he went on to explain his hopes for Kin as a cryptocurrency.

Of course, this was little comfort to users of the Kik Messenger app. The platform began as a freeware instant messaging app popular amongst younger users without an active cell phone carrier. They were able to use Kik on WiFi enabled devices — notably the iPod Touch and similar hardware at the time.

Of course, this young user population also resulted in many accusations against Kik Interactive, of enabling child exploitation. The app was criticized for having weak parental controls and for putting too much emphasis on anonymity.

Kik Messenger officially shut down on Friday. At the time of this writing, Kin cryptocurrency is valued at $0.000008.

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