Viber gets picked up by Japanese tech giant

Rakuten said the company decided to acquire Viber to strengthen its global platform through the use of Viber’s range of customers in the company’s E-commerce and digital contents services. Viber has 280 million global registered users and 100 million monthly active users. Rakuten has e-commerce interests in at least four continents and has clearly stated ambitions to become the “No. 1 Internet services company in the world”.

Acquiring one of the top messaging apps in the world is clearly a step in consolidating the two user bases. In fact, South Korea’s Kakao talk, one of the most monetised messaging apps in the world, is also a successful e-commerce platform. It seems Rakuten seems to have been inspired by the success of the this company from its neighbourhood.