Apr 12, 2016
Canada’s Kik beats Facebook to the punch in ‘Bot Store’ battle
Chatbots are getting lots of mainstream attention, thanks to Facebook’s (FB.O) latest developer gathering.
Facebook is expected to unveil a “bot store” on Tuesday at its annual F8 event in San Francisco – a launch it hopes will bolster its chat service Messenger (which already has a whopping 900 million users worldwide).
The move would follow a similar strategy at Canadian-based messaging app Kik, which recently unveiled its own bot store with partners like The Weather Channel, Sephora and Vine.
Bots are software that allow you to get things done, just as you would using an app on your smartphone. But instead of using an outside app, you’re just messaging with a bot.
Kik’s Founder and CEO, Ted Livingston, outlined the “coming bot revolution” in a recent Medium post. “This is an instant interaction, and it is something that only becomes possible with bots. There’s no new app to download, no new account to create, and, perhaps most importantly, no new user interface to learn. You just scan and chat.”
Battling the mighty Facebook is never easy. But if there’s room for multiple messaging apps, there’s certainly room for multiple bot stores. Especially if they’re reaching different audiences. At 275 million, Kik’s overall user base is smaller than Facebook Messenger, but it has youth on its side. The company says 70 per cent of its users fall between the ages of 13-24.
