Interesting article. Basically, Kik started off as just-another-mobile-messenger, and they had to compete with Facebook, Google, SMS, iMessage, WhatsApp, Blackb

Interesting article. Basically, Kik started off as just-another-mobile-messenger, and they had to compete with Facebook, Google, SMS, iMessage, WhatsApp, Blackberry, Skype, Snapchat, etc., so they figured bots would eventually set them apart. Since all links inside their app open in their embedded browser, they can track click-throughs like Google, Facebook, and presumably the quirky 'bot interface' will be popular with people who are already used to chatting. No wonder everyone else is trying to maintain feature parity with them.