Kik's a chat app and only a chat app (ie. they don't have a bunch of other properties that receive traffic like Google or Facebook) so this is what they've got,

Kik's a chat app and only a chat app (ie. they don't have a bunch of other properties that receive traffic like Google or Facebook) so this is what they've got, and what they have to work with. They can use them to keep people within their app and track where they go to afterwards. They're gambling on the fact that bots will set their platform apart from all the other chat apps. Of course, now, everyone else also has bots. But the article is about how they did it first (out of the "western" chat apps).