Waterloo-based Kik Interactive has heavily been rumoured to be preparing to go public. While Kik’s co-founder and CTO, Chris Best, recently answered answered questions about the speculation on BNN’s The Disruptors, stating, “We’re 100% focused on building an independent, sustainable Kik… We want to take over the world.”
Kik is used by over 200 million people and already has Promoted Chats and Kik Points as advertising options, but in and effort to expand its monetization strategy, Kik has hired Josh Jacobs as president of Kik Services.
Jacobs, who brings an extensive advertising resume and was most recently CEO of Accuen, will lead the company to build a ” personal computing ecosystem” within the Kik app “by enlisting partners to build compelling chat-based experiences.”
“Josh is that rare professional who gets both developers and advertisers,” said Ted Livingston, founder and CEO of Kik. “That’s exactly the sort of skill set we need to build out an ecosystem of services around Kik.” Jacobs says Kik is perfectly poised to capitalize on the fast-growing opportunity for chat networks, perhaps the most important sector to emerge in consumer computing since social networking.”
“Chat has emerged as the next great platform, not only for communications but also for building relationships,” said Jacobs. “Kik’s scale, open platform, and commitment to helping partners build chat-powered businesses has created an awesome canvas for innovation, open to everyone from developers to marketers.”
With the hire of Jacobs, Kik will expand its office location past Waterloo, New York, and San Francisco by open an office in Los Angeles.