Canada Journal – News of the World Articles and videos to bring you the biggest Canadian news stories from across the country every day
Messaging app Kik launched a chatbot store, Kik Bot Shop, that will allow users to download app-like bots that directly connect them to brands.
The Kik bot shop with exist as a special section in Kik’s app. There, users can begin chatting with bot created by 16 partners, including Vine, Sephora, H&M, and The Weather Channel.
“We want our users to have more fun and engaging experiences in Kik without having to leave the app,” said Ted Livingston, founder and CEO of Kik. “We’ve been innovating in chat in the last few years and have found that the best results come from low-friction experiences that don’t hurt the simplicity of chat. Bots deliver that.”
The arrival of Kik’s Bot Shop comes amid a series of consumer Internet trends that suggest the time is ripe for chat bots. In 2015, 1.4 billion people used a chat app, according to eMarketer. At the same time, people have stopped downloading new apps in large numbers. More than 70 percent of U.S. total smartphone app usage comes from just 200 apps, according to a June 2015 report by Nielsen. And a late 2014 study by Comscore found that that two-thirds of smartphone users downloaded zero apps in the last month.
“When we built the Funny Or Die bot on Kik in 2014, we were able to focus on building a great experience for our fans without worrying about user acquisition, and within the first three months, we were chatting with 1.5 million Kik users,” said Patrick Starzan, head of marketing at Funny Or Die. “We’re looking forward to continuing to push the boundaries of chat as it becomes central to mobile computing.”
“With messaging apps like Kik, brands have an enormous opportunity to connect with their audiences that’s much more personal and engaging,” said Erez Baum, CEO of imperson. “We are delighted to be one of Kik’s early launch partners and we look forward to bringing unique chat personas for consumers to engage with brands over messaging.”
To coincide with the Bot Shop launch, Kik will release three new chat bots features: web bubbles (“wubbles”) for sharing rich media content in conversation threads; suggested responses to help expedite text input; and a mention feature that allows bots to participate in conversation threads involving multiple parties, including groups.
Agencies/Canadajournal
