In Viber universe, PH a major launch pad, says CEO

VVIP VISITOR Rakuten Viber CEO Ofir Eyal is pleased with the accomplishments of the team in the Philippines. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS

Three years after being appointed chief executive officer of Rakuten Viber, a global leader in private and secure messaging and voice-based communication, Ofir Eyal finally came over to the Philippines for a visit and he liked what he saw.

That the Viber app is so big in the Philippines “is one of life’s mysteries,” Eyal says in jest. But after thoroughly reviewing the results of the rollout of new programs and campaigns here, he puts it down to the app’s ability to provide the market precisely what it needs and wants.

“We are giving what the audiences need. We are catering products, features. That’s probably what Filipinos look forward to. We customize what we have into the marketplace,” Eyal says, pointing out that its user market here is growing at 13 percent year-on-year, among the fastest rates in the region.

READ: Viber super app aims to boost MSME growth

The Philippines has indeed become so important to the universe of Rakuten Viber, part of Japan-based Rakuten International, that it continues to invest heavily in the country and makes it a point to test new products here as well.

Last year, for example, Viber launched its suite of small and medium business solutions for micro and small enterprises, a product that was developed following feedback that the company received here.

“It was launched here and it has also launched in Greece. It’s going to be launched in more countries. But the Philippines was the first market in the world that we launched. It was crafted based on the needs of the Filipino market,” he explains, adding that the Philippines is also an ideal market to conduct user testing because of the widespread use of the English language as well as the heavy use of mobile phones.

FINTECH Rakuten Viber is laying the groundwork to launch Viber Pay in the Philippines next month.

Trusted brand

Since Viber is a mobile-first application, it thus makes business sense for Rakuten Viber to first develop and then roll out products for the Philippine market.

“And also, I think there is something with the Viber brand. Something about our brand resonates very deeply with the people of Philippines in a way that we would like to see in more countries. The brand is trusted,” he says.

That trust was likewise earned through the company’s robust cybersecurity efforts, to ensure that all conversations are end-to-end encrypted by default.

READ: Viber to offer travel, payment solutions to Filipinos

As Eyal emphasizes, “all the users enjoy the strictest of security measures” given its compliance with international regulations on security and privacy.

“Alongside the trust, we also have this affection. Because sometimes you have some affection to a brand but you don’t trust it or vice versa. But for us in the Philippines, it’s actually both. So it’s really a sweet spot for us in terms of brand,” he adds.

The Philippines therefore figures prominently in the programs of Rakuten Viber, which intends to move Viber far beyond just messaging to becoming a super app “to make users’ lives easier.”

“The vision is to be the one app that will serve all the needs. Research shows that people spend practically 80 percent of their time on four apps on their smartphones. That’s our vision, to become one of those four apps where you spend 80 percent of your time,” he says, “So that’s where we want to be. And to do that we need to continue driving value to users, adding value. And we understand messaging calls and chats is the baseline for everything. But it cannot stay there. We have to evolve, because messaging today is somewhat of a commodity. We have to continue innovating.”

Business solutions

Rakuten Viber has already started doing precisely that with the small business solutions, for example, transforming the app from just a messaging platform to a search engine to make it easier for users to communicate and then do business with small businesses that have what they need, either a product or a service.

These features resulted in a steady 6-percent monthly growth in the number of businesses registered on the app from the latest count of 40,000.

And that’s just for starters.

From here, financial services are the next sweet spot for Rakuten Viber, which will soon roll out Viber Pay in the Philippines, as part of efforts to “connect the dots” for businesses, starting from discovering the business, communicating with them and then finally making the payment without moving out of the app.

With the in-app digital payments feature, Rakuten Viber will be the first messaging app in the Philippines to offer a fintech solution that allows friends, loved ones and businesses to instantly send money as easily and securely as sending a Viber message.

Filipinos can secure early access to Viber Pay ahead of the full launch by updating their Viber app to the latest version and joining the waitlist from the new ‘Pay’ tab, which is being rolled out over the coming days. Early access will begin in September.

Rakuten VIber says users in the Philippines will also be the first in the world to receive business wallets to keep personal and business finances separate in Viber. Business owners can open a Business wallet, in addition to their Personal wallet, and accept secure payments from customers via a QR code.

The launch of Rakuten Viber’s digital wallet comes as the Philippines notes high demand for cashless transactions plus the heavy usage of the Viber app.

Says Ritesh Shah, vice president of FinTech and Business Solutions at Rakuten Viber: “The Philippines stands out as a key market with a robust community of active Rakuten Viber users and a growing demand for secure cashless transactions and so we expect to see strong demand and usage here for Viber Pay.”