Waterloo-based Kik has launched admin tipping, a feature that allows users to send the cryptocurrency Kin to other users in the app.
Users participating in public group chats can reward group moderators for facilitating positive and meaningful user interactions inside the app. It’s the latest effort by Kik to drive adoption of Kin; in June, the company allowed users to earn Kin by completing tasks and get access to premium chat themes. Kin said it has nearly six million active wallets and 10,000 peak daily active spending transactions in the ecosystem.
“Kik users meet new people and make friends online in public groups everyday, which makes it an ideal environment to launch our next Kin product,” said Laura Newton, head of product for Kik. “The addition of admin tipping incentivizes public group admins to foster enjoyable chat experiences on Kik, while giving group participants the opportunity to thank admins for maintaining these spaces in the app.”
Kik will release admin tipping to a sample set of public groups, and its availability to all users will scale over time. The product development teams at Kin and the product development teams at Kik will continue working together as partners to ideate and build Kin-powered features that expand the app’s social economy.