Kik Messenger Buys Fashion App Blynk to Build More Chat Bots

Kik announced Monday that it has acquired Blynk, a fashion app that also runs a chat bot on Kik’s messaging app to make suggestions to people on which outfits to wear (and hopefully convince them to make purchases, too).

Four people from Blynk, which is based in Toronto, will join Kik. The reason for the acquisition is relatively obvious: Kik wants to build more automated chat bots. It already operates a few of its own, but says that fashion is an area it plans to delve into. Blynk is supposed to help with that.

The entire chat bot strategy is representative of a much larger trend around automated messaging services. Chinese chat app WeChat does something similar with bots, and Facebook Messenger is building a virtual assistant to help users accomplish daily tasks. Kik also wants to help users accomplish tasks, but instead of creating one master assistant like Messenger, it plans to build a handful of bots, each specialized in one specific area (like shopping or travel).

The hope for all these messaging apps is that building software to chat with users will keep those users coming back to the app. A Kik spokesperson declined to share terms for the acquisition.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you join us?

Our biggest supporters are our readers — and we’re so grateful to everyone who has made a contribution during our September campaign. We’re less than 1,000 contributions away from reaching our goal for the month, which in turn will allow us to say yes more often when our incredible journalists come to us with questions they want to answer and projects they want to pursue. Will you make a contribution before the month ends and support our policy coverage through 2024 and beyond?

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via