It’s been confirmed that yesterday Smart Communications has bought Chikka.com for some undisclosed amount. Two top executives from Chikka Asia Inc. posted updates on their Twitter account about this development.
This has long been rumored but we’ve finally gotten word that they’ve both signed off on the agreement yesterday.
Dennis Mendiola is the Founder and Chief Imagination Officer of Chikka:
Gio Bacareza is the Business Development Director of Chikka:
I’m still getting some more details and will update this post as I get them.
Chikka Asia, Inc. is a wireless application service provider, better known for creating the world’s first instant messenger to fully integrate mobile features via SMS, the “Chikka Messenger.” It has about 38 million registered users, including mobile subscribers from network operators worldwide and is interoperable with Google Talk .
Update: According to multiple sources, the deal was in the vicinity of Php750 million.
huh! no doubt smart will charge chikka’s free txt messages to globe/sun while maintaining the free service to smart network only.
why is it that telcos are acquiring content providers. ito na ba ang business model ngayon? they have wolfac right? globe has EGG? what next? ung IG kaya or ZED?
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wow.. chikka was bought by smart? really now…
why would smart bother to buy chika? hmmm… chika has loads of information, from cellphone numbers to emails, to contacts. chika is even on your desktop..
may be that will answer your questions, that why would smart bother buying chika.
anyway…
chika was very famous back then but didnt evolve to much profitable terms…
IMO
chika is cheating… chika users pretend as the normal users masked with the name… then when you reply.. 2.50php will cost the sender..
too bad…
i cant access chikka.com in my new laptop. eseries sony ..also in samsung mini laptop.help!
yes, nakain na ni smart si chikka… nararamdaman na ng chikka people ngayon yan…
smart move si smart talaga… nice.
I think smart finds no more use of chikka. They are starting to shut them down.
At first this sounded like great news, but it seems the merger isn’t going so well now. I wonder what this really means for smart now?
Chikka just had its third retrenchment a month or two ago. Business is REALLY going bad. CP? They’ve reduced their content department from 20+ members to 2. Yes. Only 2 remains. This isn’t a good move at all when few years back, Google was buying Chikka.
Smart is not shutting down chikka. In fact they are pouring in more capital to the company (for the new office, new servers etc)
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Twitter: otep_enmanuel
says:
The smart company is really smart.. maybe in future they see that chikka will be a threath
…
Smart move by Smart. There is a lot of money to be made with Chikka
papa chat nman tau ngun