Founding
Viber turned into based in 2010 to clear up the hassle of lengthy-distance relationships. Co-founder, Talmon Marco's female friend on the time changed into primarily based totally in Hong Kong whilst he turned into dwelling out in New York City.
Living aside however speaking all of the time brought about very pricey telecall smartphone bills. Trying to triumph over this issue, Marco became his friend Igor Magazinnik to discover a solution.
- Viber Media become based in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 2010 via way of means of Marco and Magazinnik, who're pals from the Israel Defense Forces in which they have been leader statistics officers.
- The corporation turned into a run from Israel, with a great deal of its improvement outsourced to Belarus with a view to decrease exertions costs.
- It turned into registered in Cyprus. Sani Maroli and Ofer Smocha quickly joined the organization as well. Marco commented that Viber permits spontaneous calling and synchronization with contacts due to the fact the ID is the consumer's molecular number, unlike Skype which's modeled after a “friend list” requiring registration and a password.
Monetization
In its first years of availability, Viber did now no longer generate revenues. It started out doing so in 2013, thru person bills for Viber Out voice calling and the Viber graphical messaging “decal store”.
The business enterprise turned into firstly funded through character investors, defined with the aid of using Marco as “buddies and family”. They invested $20 million withinside the corporation, which had a hundred and twenty personnel as of May 2013.
- On July 24, 2013, Viber's aid machine turned into defaced through the Syrian Electronic Army. According to Viber, no touchy consumer facts became accessed.[25]
Acquisition
On February 13, 2014, Rakuten introduced that they'd received Viber Media for $900 million. The sale of Viber earned the Shabtai family (Benny, his brother Gilad, and Gilad's son Ofer) some $500 million from their 55.2% stake withinside the organization. sale price, the founders every found out over 30 instances go back on their investments.
- Djamel Agaoua have become Viber Media CEO in February 2017, changing co-founder Marco who left in 2015.
- In July 2017 the company called of Viber Media changed into modified to Rakuten Viber and a new wordmark brand became introduced.[31] Its felony call remains Viber Media, S.à r.l. primarily based totally in Luxembourg.
Market share
As of December 2016, Viber had 800 million registered customers.[34] According to Statista, there are 260 million month-to-month lively customers as of January 2019.[35]
- India turned into the biggest marketplace for Viber as of December 2014 with 33 million registered customers, the 5th maximum famous immediately messenger withinside the country. At the equal time, there had been 30 million customers withinside the United States, 28 million in Russia, and 18 million in Brazil.[37] Viber is especially famous in Eastern Europe, being the maximum downloaded messaging app on Android in Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine as of 2016.
- It is likewise famous in Iraq, Libya, and Nepal. As of 2018, Viber has an over 70 percent penetration price withinside the CIS and CEE regions, however simplest 15 percentage in North America.
Russia
Viber is one of the greater famous messenger programs in Russia. In January 2016, Viber surpassed WhatsApp in Russia, with approximately 50 million customers. Viber changed into developing mainly hastily in city regions like Moscow and St. Petersburg. In April 2016 using Viber in Russia turned into two times better than in 2015, it reached sixty-six million customers.
By 2018, Viber had reached a hundred million customers in Russia. Another file from 2017 indicates that Russian IM customers choose to use Viber or WhatsApp over different services. In Russia, Viber plans to apply the technique of price for searching for items and services.
- Nikolay Nikiforov of the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media has declined to touch upon the impact that law № 241-FZ (which has limited use of some different encrypted chats such as Telegram) could have on Viber.
Ukraine
In 2020 Viber Messenger is Ukraine's maximum famous IM, it's far established on 97% of all Ukrainian smartphones
Features
Viber became at the start released as a VoIP software for voice calls. On March 31, 2011, Viber 2.zero become launched which brought immediately messaging (IM) capabilities. In July 2012 institution messaging and an HD Voice engine had been delivered to each Android and iOS program.
- In December 2012 Viber delivered ‘stickers' to the software. In October 2013, Viber 4.zero became introduced providing a sticky label ‘marketplace' wherein Viber might be promoting stickers as a supply of revenue.[61] In addition, model 4.zero introduced push-to-talk capabilities, and Viber Out, a function that offers customers the choice to name cellular and landline numbers thru VoIP without the want for the software. Viber Out has become quickly loose withinside the Philippines to help Typhoon Haiyan sufferers hook up with their cherished ones.
Voice assist became formally delivered for all Windows Phone 8 gadgets on April 2, 2013. In September 2014, Viber 5.zero turned into launched and introduced video calling.
