印度版微信的颠覆性 Hike app aims to disrupt data providers“天博tb·综合体育”

Indian chat app Hike faces an uphill battle to catch up with WhatsApp, the world’s most popular messaging service owned by social network Facebook. But founder Kavin Bharti Mittal says one new feature is proving popular with users across the developing world.印度聊天应用于Hike要跟上社交媒体Facebook旗下、全球人气最低的信息服务WhatsApp，还得经历一番艰难战斗，但其创始人凯文巴蒂米塔尔(Kavin Bharti Mittal，上图)回应，事实证明，一个新功能于是以受到发展中国家用户的青睐。“It came out of an insight that data [in India] is expensive,” he says of Hike Direct, a service added to the group’s main app in October that lets users swap files such as music and video at high speeds without having to be online.他在谈及Hike Direct时回应：“它源自（印度）数据通信很喜这个了解。”Hike Direct是该集团去年10月为其主要应用于追加的一个服务，让用户在不必网际网路的情况下高速互相交换音乐和视频等文档。

India has about 400m internet users, most of whom use the internet via mobile devices. Roughly 250m now own smartphones but even those with expensive devices often save money by rationing data use or turning connections off.印度约有4亿互联网用户，其中大多数通过移动设备用于互联网。大约2.5亿人现在有智能手机，但即便是那些有便宜设备的人也往往为了省钱而定量用于数据或者插入网络连接。Perhaps as many as a third of smartphone users have no data connection at all, according to IT analysts Convergence Catalyst. They rely instead on occasional WiFi or on “side loading” files to their phone using memory cards.信息技术分析机构Convergence Catalyst回应，也许低约三分之一的智能手机用户几乎没数据相连。

他们倚赖有时候的WiFi无线连接或者用于存储卡将文档“侧载”至手机。Mr Mittal argues Hike Direct is ideal for such users. It works like a faster, more intuitive version of Bluetooth, using an underlying technology called WiFi Direct that is built into most smartphones. The feature allows any two Hike users to pair their phones and swap files if they are near each other.米塔尔坚称，Hike Direct非常适合此类用户。

它就看起来一个速度更加慢、更加直观的蓝牙版本，用于内置放多数智能手机的一种取名为WiFi Direct的底层技术。这种功能容许任何两个Hike用户在彼此附近时筛选手机并互相交换文档。“Growth for Hike Direct is tremendous,” Mr Mittal says, although he will not reveal actual numbers, saying only that users have so far swapped about 10m files.米塔尔回应：“Hike Direct的快速增长是极大的。

”不过他没透漏实际数目，只是说道用户目前为止互相交换了约1000万份文档。More generally, about 100m use Hike’s main messenger globally, far behind the roughly 900m claimed by WhatsApp. But Hike enjoys a comfortable second place in India, and says it is growing rapidly elsewhere.整体而言，全球约有1亿人用于Hike的主要信息服务，相比之下领先于WhatsApp声称的将近9亿用户。但Hike在印度的用户数量精彩地名列第二，该公司回应其他地方的用户数量正在很快快速增长。

Mr Mittal’s father is tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal, founder of Bharti Airtel, India’s leading telecoms group by market share. Hike is a joint venture between Bharti and SoftBank, a Japanese telecoms group that has invested heavily in Indian start-ups.米塔尔的父亲是电信大亨、巴蒂电信(Bharti Airtel)的创始人苏尼尔巴帝米塔尔(Sunil Bharti Mittal)。按市场份额计算出来，巴蒂电信是印度领先的电信集团。Hike是巴蒂电信和乘机投资于印度初创企业的日本电信集团软银(SoftBank)正式成立的合资企业。Some industry figures view the technology underpinning Hike Direct as a potentially disruptive force — especially if Hike and its rivals allow many users to pair phones, rather than just two at a time, so effectively creating an impromptu local sharing network.一些业内人士将反对Hike Direct的技术视作潜在的颠覆性力量，特别是在是如果Hike及其竞争对手让多名（而不仅仅限于一次两名）用户筛选手机的话，那将实质上创立一个临时的本地分享网络。

“That is why this could be a brilliant concept, and one uniquely suited for India,” says Roy de Souza, chief executive of Zedo, an India-based digital advertising business. He says that in India even rich people turn off their data connections. “What they really want is a kind of WhatsApp that doesn’t cost them data. This could be it.”印度数字广告企业Zedo的首席执行官罗伊德索萨(Roy de Souza)回应：“那就是为什么这有可能是一个绝佳的概念，一个尤其限于于印度的概念。”他说道，在印度，即便是富人也不会插入他们的数据相连。“他们确实想的是一种不必花费他们数据流量的WhatsApp，Hike Direct有可能就是这么个服务。”Services like this could be especially popular on university campuses, Mr de Souza says, or in small office buildings. But Mr Mittal has bigger ideas. “Eventually, you could think of this connecting together a whole rural village that isn’t online,” he says.德索萨回应，像这样的服务有可能在大学校园或者小型写字楼最为热门。

但米塔尔有更加宏伟的创新。他说道：“最后而言，你有可能想要让它将没联网的整个村子联成在一起。

”Making this happen will not be easy. So far, the broader network concept is untested. Any company developing the technology could face legal difficulties, given its probable use as a way of sharing pirated music and videos. Setting up a network would also drain the batteries of connected phones, a deterrent factor.构建这一点子并不更容易。创建更大范围网络的概念目前为止没经过测试。鉴于这种技术很有可能被用作分享正版音乐和视频，任何研发这种技术的公司有可能面对法律上的艰难。创建网络也将让连接起来的手机更加慢消耗电量，这是一个让人望而却步的因素。

It would help if other services beyond Hike adopted it, too, says Jayanth Kolla, analyst at Convergence Catalyst. “As a feature, so far it is a useful addition to Hike, but it isn’t disruptive yet,” he says.Convergence Catalyst的分析师贾扬特科拉(Jayanth Kolla)回应，如果Hike以外的其他服务也使用这种技术，那将不会有所协助。“作为一个功能，目前为止这是对Hike的简单补足，但它还不具备颠覆性，”他回应。“But I would expect other chat apps like WeChat in China and Line [based in Japan] to add something like this soon, and then it could really take off.”“但我预计中国的微信(WeChat)和日本的Line等其他聊天APP将不会迅速加添类似于功能，随后它就有可能知道降落。

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