The Tokyo-based Internet company Rakuten will acquire the Cyprus-based Internet Messenger App, in a press statement Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani said:
“I am tremendously excited to welcome Viber to the Rakuten family. Viber delivers the most consistently high quality and convenient messaging and VoIP experience available. Additionally, Viber has introduced a great sticker market and has tremendous potential as a gaming platform. Simply put, Viber understands how people actually want to engage and have built the only service that truly delivers on all fronts. This makes Viber the ideal total consumer engagement platform for Rakuten as we seek to bring our deep understanding of the consumer to vast new audiences through our dynamic ecosystem of Internet Services.”
Viber’s CEO was here in the Philippines in December to help in the Yolanda typhoon victims. Read our story here.
The merger will result to 525 millions users; Viber has 300 million users while the Japanese brand has 225 millions registered users.
Rakuten is one of the global leading ISP which provides various services for consumers and businesses, including in the areas of e-commerce, eReading, travel, banking, securities , credit cards, e-money, logistics, portal and media, online marketing and professional sports.
Talmon Marco, the CEO and founder of Viber said:
“Rakuten is one of the world’s most important Internet companies. It is truly dominant in its home market of Japan and has been rapidly expanding globally. This combination presents an amazing opportunity for Viber to enhance our rapid user growth in both existing and new markets. Sharing similar aspirations with Rakuten, our vision is to be the world’s No.1 communications platform and our combination with Rakuten is an important step in that direction.”
