rival WhatsApp, and Line, owned by Korean company Naver Corp. It competes with instant messaging apps such as WeChat, a unit of Chinese Internet firm Tencent Holdings Ltd, U.S. This might involve working with designers and engineers to create prototypes or test new features, or it could mean gathering feedback from current customers about what they like and don’t like about the company’s products. Viber is funded from the pockets of its founders and several private investors from the United States. The pre-sales manager will also play an active role in helping Viber develop new offerings or improve existing ones. Its chief executive Marco told the same media conference Rakuten’s acquisition would help his company become a platform for digital content, not just a provider of free voice calls and messages.Ī plethora of messaging apps, including the likes of Viber, are seeking to capitalise on the appeal of their free services, especially in emerging markets. Viber is one of the top five most downloaded smartphone phone call and messaging apps, and counts the United States, Russia and Australia among its biggest markets.
Other action by tech firms include Alphabet's Google temporarily disabling some features on Google Maps in Ukraine as Russian troops advance into the country.“Developing this messaging system on our own would have been impossible,” he added, saying Rakuten users could, for example, use Viber’s instant messages to contact an online store while considering a purchase. Rakuten's billionaire founder and chief executive Hiroshi Mikitani has expressed his support for Ukraine, changing his Twitter profile picture to the country's blue and yellow flag and making a 1 billion yen ($8.7 million) donation to its government for aid. The Japanese company will pay 900m (540m) for. Viber, which launched in 2010 and was acquired by e-commerce firm Rakuten in 2014, is entrenched in the region with 97% of Ukrainian smartphone owners using the app. The heads of Rakuten and Viber announced the deal on Friday Messaging app Viber has been bought by Rakuten, the owner of online retailer . Viber, the messaging app owned by Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten, is poised to implement a controversial new strategy that will see it charge companies that run chatbots on its platform.
"Blocking our service in Russia or any other country will harm the people of Ukraine by preventing free, private and secure communication," Rakuten said in the statement, attributed to its chief operating officer Ken Hyakuno. Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov asked Rakuten to block Viber service in Russia in a letter posted on Twitter, along with similar requests to companies such as Facebook-owner Meta Platforms.
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