WhatsApp is primarily a free SMS service. We believe Viber offers a service that is significantly better than WhatsApp. We primarily compete on the product side services such as Viber are better than SMSes in these they offer a much richer experience. How do you compete with the popular WhatsApp? But it’s not something you will see in a market such as India soon. We bring an additional 400 million users, which could enhance Rakuten’s reach. Outside Japan, Viber could serve as the basis for adding such services, either by building our own or by partnering others. What connects these programmes is the Rakuten id, which can be used for all its services, as well as super points, an incentive people can earn in any of the services and use to buy a service.
It has also added services such as travel booking and golf course reservations. What are the synergies you would like to explore and leverage? At a personal level, it (acquisition) is a vindication of our vision and a reward for our hard work. That means I can go into a meeting and say we are backed by a company which has billion-dollar sales we have resources at our disposal, which were not available earlier we are much stronger, but at the same time, much faster. Someone who owns Viber will want it to run like a young, small start-up, and Rakuten has allowed that. I think that is important because Rakuten is a fast-moving company, but a big company. We continue to run Viber as an independent company. But overall, the day-to-day life has not changed. Life hasn't changed much, though I just get to travel more, which is fun. What has the acquisition by Rakuten meant for Viber? You can send a 'yes' on a message, or use any of the interesting stickers we have to say yes and express yourself in five different ways, which you can't by just writing hello on a message.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. You could deliver a ‘hello’ on both, but if you want to express yourself and show uniqueness, you could send a sticker. In many ways, this is the difference between Viber and WhatsApp. Personally, I will either go for the bicycle, which is environment-friendly or the latest BMW. Yes, you can send a message on both Viber and WhatsApp you could drive to work on a bicycle or a motorcycle or a 1980-vintage Suzuki car or a latest BMW. Viber is not just a (messaging) tool, it’s a way of life it’s about having fun it’s about being able to express yourself in many ways. Indian users seem to appreciate the fine aspects of Viber we are going to push that. But it shows how committed we are to this market.
#Viber messenger all at same time tv#
This is the first time we have done a TV commercial we will do this in other markets, too. We expect to continue to grow here, and fast. There’s no reason why people will use SMS when they have something like Viber.
The Indian market is at an early stage of development-most users don’t have smartphones or mobile data but this will change in the next couple of years.You can already buy basic smartphones for $45-$50 and this will continue to go down.Įveryone will have a smartphone, everyone will have data and everyone will have Viber on their phones. It is one of the two markets with more than a billion people the other is pretty much closed to the world. Edited excerpts: How do you plan to grow in India?įor us, India is a very significant market and that is why we have a team on the ground. On a visit to India, Viber chief executive Talmon Marco shares with Ranju Sarkar the company’s plans for India and its strategy to compete with WhatsApp. In the previous quarter, Japanese e-commerce major Rakuten acquired it for $900 million. With unique features such as doodles, stickers and voice notes, it accounts for about 400 million users across 193 countries, including 25 million in India. Viber is one of the fastest growing instant messaging applications.
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