Kik Messenger app to turn off

Kik Messenger closes despite the service having had millions of active users around the world.

The company said it was closing the messaging service so that it could concentrate on the Kin cryptocurrency it has also created.

a blog, Kik Interactive said the decision had been forced into it by a legal dispute with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over Kin.

The decision also means that 80 employees who keep Kik up and running will let go. [1[ads1]9659007] No date has been set for when the Kik app will close.

Kik Messenger was launched in 2010 and proved popular, mainly because it allows people to register and use it without providing a phone number or other credentials.

The app has also proved controversial, and a BBC News investigation in 2018 suggested it had been mentioned in 1100 UK sexual abuse cases police had investigated over the past five years.

In response, Kik said it was "constantly assessing and improving its confidence and security measures."

Cash community

When writing about the decision to switch focus, Kik Interactive founder Ted Livingstone said the company had the "hard decision" to shut down Kik because it wanted to devote all its attention to Kin cryptocurrency.

By closing Kik and shrinking to 19 employees, the company could cut its overheads by 85%, he said, giving it a much better chance of winning the legal battle with the SEC.

He acknowledged the difficulty the resolution would cause because it would mean laying off people who had families and who "had been pouring their hearts and souls into Kik and Kin for over a decade."

The legal range exploded because the SEC wanted Family Crypto-Cash launch categorized in the same way as the original stock offering for companies that floated on the stock exchange.

It said when Kik Interactive had launched Kin, and had effectively implemented a $ unregistered "$ 100 million (£ 80m) share offer.

Mr Livingstone said it had to resist classifying Kin as" security "because of this categorization would "kill" its usability and other similar crypto-cash systems.

"We made the decision to go ahead and fight," he said.

In addition to fighting in court, Kik Interactive would also work for to convert millions of existing Kin users into more active customers and buyers, Livingstone said.

Kin currently had two million "monthly active revenues" and 600,000 "monthly active consumers".

And to increase the community of Kin users would significantly make it much harder for the SEC to win.

"Together, we will win," Livingstone added.