Kotlin strives to be a pragmatic and industry-focused language, seeking a minimal (but legible) syntax that expresses business logic rather than boilerplate. However, it does not cut corners like many concise languages. It is statically typed and performs robustly in production, and yet is speedy enough for prototyping. It also works 100% with Java libraries and source code, making it feasible for a gradual transition.
Android developers, who were stuck on Java 6 until recently, were quick to adopt Kotlin and effectively make it the Swift of Android. Funnily enough, Swift and Kotlin have similar feel and syntax, but Kotlin came into existence first. On top of that, the Kotlin community and ecosystem of libraries continued to grow quickly. Due to JetBrains' and Google's commitment, it is clear that Kotlin has a bright future in the JVM.
But what does Kotlin...