@Kik hits the 100 million member mark - Open Source Mobile Rise to develope Defense Against the Dark Arts of Google+

“We couldn't be more excited to pass the 100 million user mark and to see so many people in our community engaging with Kik Cards. As we continue innovating on the Kik platform, we're looking forward to delivering more compelling Card experiences to our growing user base”

Kik CEO Ted Livingston in a statement on his company reaching the 100 million member milestone

Kik, a three (3) year old Ontario, Canada based Mobile Social Network I’ve never heard of, recently reached the 100 million member mark recently as stated in the article “Kik Messenger Tops 100M User Milestone”, published December 12, 2013 04:45pm EST by Stephanie Mlot, PC Magazine and “Kik rides teen interest to 100M users”, published December 12, 2013 9:00 AM PST by Jennifer Van Grove, CNET News.

They’ve experience phenomenal growth, tripling their membership from 30,000,000 in November 2012 to the current mark, quite amazing for a Canadian company with such a small staff. Then again, that’s the same story behind WhatsApp, who are now one third the size of Facebook in terms of membership as stated in my blog article entitled “WhatsApp is now one-third the size of Facebook - Mobile Social Messaging American Hustler faces competition from the Rising Tide of Blackberry Messenger as they Herald Facebook's Death”.

This despite recent concerns raised about Kik potentially exposing them to child predators as stated in the article “Police warning on social media messaging app, Kik”, published December 1, 2013, by Cosima Marriner, The Sydney Herald and “Kik social network indecent pictures claims investigated”, published 15 July 2013 Last updated at 21:42 GMT, BBC News.

Somewhat akin to the concerns about Snapchat which I had highlighted in my blog article entitled “Snapchat Leaked Facebook page shut down but Snapchat Leaked website still live - Snapchat's Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol is really Much Ado About Nothing”.

Kik’s CEO Ted Livingston Story – The Blackberry Connection

That’s really significant to me, as Kik is also the only other Canadian company in those league tables along with the now dead and dying Blackberry as noted in my blog article entitled “Blackberry being rescued by former co-CEO Mike Lazaridis - Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited is Fire and Blood as BBM goes free”.

Even more ironic is that Kik’s CEO Ted Livingston was a former employee of Blackberry and in fact after starting his company, got sued for patent infringement, a suit that they eventually settled in October 2013 as stated in “Kik and BlackBerry Settle Patent Infringement Lawsuit”, published OCTOBER 7, 2013 AT 10:59 PM PT by Liz Gannes, All Things Digital.

Kik has the potential to challenge WhatsApp as already BBM is showing progress in its expansion into the vast wasteland of Apple iOS and Google Android as stated in my blog article entitled “Blackberry Messenger is Most Downloaded in November 2013 and is poised to beat WhatsApp - BBM is now on the Rising Tide of the Mobile Social Messaging Network Summer of Love”.

They also have the same kinda service like Snapchat, minus the Privacy prone problems of baring one’s pictures of your breasts that disappear al in a dare to make friends as noted in my blog article entitled “Snapchat now racks up 350 million shares of self-deleting snaps per day - Milennial Girl’s Litmus Test for Friends and future boyfriends”. It and all inclusive community where you can share and play!

Kik in three Years time – Triples membership by laying Kik Cards on the Table

To Teenagers (ages 13 to 17) and the Millenials (ages 18 to 28) that love Kik, it’s a way to escape from the prying eyes of Adults, parents especially on Facebook. Even better, there are no phone number used to join like WhatsApp; you create your screen-name, making it difficult for parents to connect you to your Kik profile.

After all, what would you do if Facebook remove their privacy settings an allowed your parents to find your freaky sex posts as concluded in my blog article entitled “Facebook removes Who can look up your Timeline by name feature - Facebook Pages vs Facebook Profiles as the Power of Privacy is in YOUR Hands”?

Then to make it worse, gave YOU the ability to post anything you wanted as stated in my blog article entitled “FaceBook now gives Teenagers the power to make Public Posts - How making everything Public on Facebook improves their Advertising Revenue”, a SURER reason than any for parents to want to watch your every move on Facebook?

More reason for Teenagers (ages 13 to 17) and the Millenials (ages 18 to 28) to leave Facebook in droves and go towards Social Mobile Networks where the prying eyes of Parents can’t reach them as concluded in my blog article entitled “Facebook is Trailing Behind WhatsApp in Social Messaging - Teenagers and Millennials wooed by Mobile Social Networks on smartphones and Tablets that have Snapchat-esque Privacy Controls”.

That’s the main thing fuelling the explosive growth of Social Mobile Networks such as snapchat, WhatsApp and now Kik: Addressing Privacy concerns not from Predators but from Parents!

Another that’s a follow-on to the Teenage Drift is also that it means more need for entertainment. The secret to this HTML5 Mobile Social Messaging phenomenon’s rise has been their Open Developer Platform Kik Cards, which allows developers to code and port apps that run on their Service.

To this end, Kik facilitates Developers with its Kik Cards Open Source App Development, a similar concept that I’d predicted will also make Firefox OS and Tizen OS a hit once their smartphones reach the market as stated in my blog article entitled “MWC 2013 reveals Firefox OS & Tizen OS launching Second & Third Quarter 2013 respectively - Samsung's Despicable Me 2 & Mozilla practices The ABC's of Death”; porting of Apps from other Platforms to HTML5!

This as the general Teenagers (ages 13 to 17) and the Millenials (ages 18 to 28) population likes the idea of App development that doesn’t have the restrictive rules of Apple but has easy to use Developer Tools that are true Open Source unlike Google as explained in my blog article entitled “Samsung's Tizen, Firefox OS and Ubuntu OS to unseat Google Android by 2015 - How Linux and HTML 5 are Oz the Great and Powerful for Open Source”.

Kik Cards is what drove the Rise of Kik. Thus I won’t be surprised if Kik’s Browser like interface eventually goes Native on these up and coming smartphone OS such as Firefox OS, Ubuntu OS and Tizen OS as they’re ALL friendly to HTML5 deep integration. This would be a coupe that’s on the same level as WhatsApp getting their own dedicated button on the Nokia Asha 210 as reported in Kelroy’s Geezam blog article entitled “New Nokia Asha 210 features a dedicated WhatsApp button”.

Kik it into the Future – Kik OS and smartphone challenges the Rise of Open Source Mobile

So what’s the future of Kik? Since they’ve used the HTML5 based platform as a launch pad for Apps from Third Party Developers, it won’t be surprising that they may choose to go the route of developing it into a smartphone OS to face off against the ultimate rival: Google+.

Much as Facebook needs to do right now to survive the current desertion of Teenagers (ages 13 to 17) and Millennials (ages 18 to 28) as stated in my blog article entitled “Facebook is Trailing Behind WhatsApp in Social Messaging - Teenagers and Millennials wooed by Mobile Social Networks on smartphones and Tablets that have Snapchat-esque Privacy Controls”.

In fact, eventually ALL of the Social Mobile Networks such as WhatsApp and Snapchat will need to eventually create their own Mobile Computing operating system for smartphones and Tablets. This as the future survival of Social Mobile Networks is basically Open Source Mobile and depending on them having their own apps and ecosystems.

The exact remedy that Facebook needs as noted in my blog article entitled “Facebook OS on a smartphone dubbed HTC First to debut on Thursday April 4th 2013 - Tyler Perry’s Temptation of Mobile Computing on Tablets and Smartphones is too hard to ignore”.

What’s new is the ability to port Apps from Google Android and make them work seamlessly, thus making it very easy for Developers to code for one HTML5 based Mobile OS such as Firefox OS as stated in my Geezam blog article entitled “Firefox OS and Telecoms Providers debuts low-budget Alcatel One Touch” . The fact that these new Mobile OS upstarts support the Open Source Mobile philosophy means that they facilitate not only full modification of the OS but they also support Developers porting their Apps from Google Android.

Third Party Developer developing Apps for Kik OS – Google+ Winter is Coming

Gentle people, right now Kik IS a Social Mobile Network that’s Growing Strong, like House Tyrell in Game of Thrones. But as Google Android ramps up with their cheaper smartphones as stated in my blog article entitled “US$179 Moto G debut on Wednesday November 11 2013 from Motorola - Google's Quad-Core Budget smartphone is Free Birds for the Lost 500 million sheep” their Ambitions to rule both Hardware and software are becoming obvious.

Even their Mobile Social Network, Google+, is set to take center stage by early 2016 as noted in my blog article entitled “Google+ is expanding rapidly and is set to beat Facebook by 2016 - Batman the Dark Knight Rises as the new Social Network King” and more directly in my Geezam blog article entitled “Winter is Coming as Google+ is on a collision course to beat Facebook by 2016”.

Thus Facebook isn’t the only Social Network that’s going to have problems because they haven’t gone Mobile; even those BORN Mobile will eventually have to deal with the Dragon that’s Google+ on Google Android smartphones!

Kik’s progress thus far may Herald the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) for Mobile Social Networks Defense Against the Darks Arts of Google+!