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Ted Livingston
Born1987
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
NationalityCanadian
Alma materUniversity of Waterloo,
Occupation(s)Founder and CEO of Kik Messenger
SpouseChristine Thayer [1]

Ted Livingston (born 1987) is founder of Kik Messenger that provides mobile messaging service.[2][3]

Early life

Livingston was born in Toronto. As a child, Livingston had a passion for building Lego structures and automated machines in his basement. He continues following this interest on the school robotics team.[4]

From 1997 to 2005, Livingston attended the Crescent School, in Toronto.[5]

2005–Present: UWaterloo and Kik

Livingston took a mechatronics bachelor's degree at the University of Waterloo from 2005 to 2009[6] in order to "pursue his dream of building robots."[7] He participated in the Waterloo co-op program there, with placements at Honda and the City of Toronto government. Livingston eventually landed a co-op position as a system engineering project coordinator at Research in Motion.

In December 2007, eight months into his co-op, Livingston was promoted by Research in Motion to "Technical Product Management Coordinator".[5] In 2008, he turned down a full-time job to return to school at the advice of his manager.

Back at Waterloo, Livingston decided to take part in the Velocity program, a startup-focused community where he founded Kik Messenger instead of completing his degree.[6]

Kik now competes with Facebook and WeChat. At its peak in 2015 it boasted over 275 million registered users,[8] and it was used by approximately 40 percent of American teens.[9] In 2015 Chinese Internet giant Tencent invested $50 million into Kik. [10]

In 2014, Forbes placed him on their "Top 30 under 30" in their technology list.[11] In November 2015, Torontolife ranked Livingston at #20 on their "Toronto's 50 Most Influential,".[12]

References

  1. ^ "The canadian who wants to dethrone facebook". The Globe and Mail. 2015-11-26. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  2. ^ "One Of The Hottest Companies In Mobile: Interview With Kik's Ted Livingston". Forbes. 2014-01-22. Retrieved 2014-02-06.
  3. ^ "Ted Livingston, 26 - In Photos: 2014 30 under 30: Technology". Forbes. Archived from the original on January 9, 2014. Retrieved 2014-02-06.
  4. ^ "How Ted Livingston went from RIM Reject to Kik Starter". Toronto Star. 13 March 2016.
  5. ^ a b "Ted Livingston '05".
  6. ^ a b "Ted Livingston".
  7. ^ PATTY WINSA (March 13, 2016). "How Ted Livingston went from RIM reject to Kik starter". Toronto Star.
  8. ^ "Number of registered Kik Messenger users worldwide from November 2012 to February 2016 (in millions)".
  9. ^ "Kik Receives $50 Million Investment From Tencent".
  10. ^ "Tencent Invests $50 Million in Messaging App Kik".
  11. ^ "2014 30 UNDER 30: TECHNOLOGY 20 of 31". Forbes. Archived from the original on January 9, 2014.
  12. ^ "Toronto's 50 Most Influential: #20, Ted Livingston". 19 November 2015.


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