Hike messenger has announced the launch of the ‘Great Indian Sticker Challenge’ (GISC), which is an opportunity for illustrators, graphic designers, animators, caricaturist, cartoonist from all over the country to participate in creating stickers for the Hike app.
The Great Indian Sticker Challenge is a platform open to everyone who can design graphic illustrations, irrespective of their age or academic and professional credentials. The registration and submission is open until March 31, 2015 at gisc.hike.in. The winners can grab prizes up to Rs. 20 Lacs and the results will be announced on April 15, 2015. In addition, every shortlisted entry will be rewarded Rs. 10,000 and will be given artist credit on hike messenger for their respective sticker pack. Furthermore, they will be empanelled for future work of Hike Limited.
Hike has claimed that its users were sending over 3 Billion stickers a month. Of the 10 Billion+ messaging volumes per month, stickers contribute to over 30% of the traffic. In its quest to scale up the choice of stickers, and yet have the best content, hike has launched this challenge to encourage talented Indian professionals to create stickers for their app and get rewarded.
Commenting on the design challenge, Kavin Bharti Mittal, Founder & CEO, hike messenger, said “Stickers have played a significant role in transforming the messaging experience. Today we see 3 Billion stickers exchange on hike. We believe that the ‘Great Indian Sticker Challenge’ will not just bring together the crème la crème from the design industry for the contest, but will also give a chance to thousands of talented designers to find a new way of earning recognition for their creative talent.”
Hike, India’s only homegrown chat application, was launched in December 2012. Hike also claims to have over 35 Million users. The app also boasts of a fairly young user base with over 90% of its users being under the age of 25 and residing in India. The chat application has localized features, which are developed keeping in mind the infrastructural and cultural requirements such as Hike Offline – lets you message your friends even when they’re offline, Hidden Mode– allows users to hide their private chats with a password, Stickers – helps users express more in their own language, amongst many others.
