Rakuten Viber celebrates a decade of operations in Sri Lanka

Rakuten Viber, one of the world’s leading apps for free and easy communication, celebrates a decade of enriching Sri Lankan lives with its unique messaging platform, one that values users’ privacy and mobile technology.

Viber was launched in 2010, with the simple goal of providing an alternative medium of communication, offering free calls to international mobile users. Over the past decade, Viber has become a household name in Sri Lanka for its free, interactive and secure messaging that allows people to connect with whoever they want, wherever they are. 

In 2014, Viber became part of Rakuten Inc., a world leader in e-commerce and financial services. Subsequently, in 2018, ‘communities’ was launched, creating a massive milestone for the company, empowering admins to create supergroup chats, where they can add an unlimited number of people. The year after, the group voice calls feature was also launched.  To-date, Rakuten Viber has evolved, disrupting the industry and becoming a comprehensive communication platform, offering a suite of features such as messaging, group chats, audio and video calls, communities and chatbots, while ensuring and keeping its core promise of privacy to users.

“Viber’s journey over the last 10 years wouldn’t have been possible without the hundreds of millions of people who trusted us with their personal communication and with them, we have grown into what we are today. At Viber, our promise to our users has always been to provide a free and secure way for them to stay connected with their world. 

As technologies continue to take a bigger part of our lives, data privacy and security of communication becomes increasingly important. Viber employees are committed to continue working hard for this critical mission. For most of you, they are anonymous. But trust me when I say they are the best team one can ask for,” said Rakuten Viber CEO Djamel Agaoua. In addition, Viber is well on its way toward becoming an all-encompassing communication platform expanding into utilities and fintech, while never relenting on its commitment to protect user privacy.

Over the years Viber has seen accelerated growth in Sri Lanka with continued records in usage. Compared to 2019, during the first half of 2020, a 39 percent increase in daily activations and a 34 percent rise in sending group messages, with a growth of 91 percent in the number of messages sent in a group has been witnessed. Moreover, one to one messages increased by 37 percent and community views surged by 118 percent. To offer Sri Lankan users enhanced services, Viber has over the years begun investing in localising the app and partnering with key local organisations.  Among the significant milestones include partnering with People’s Bank, one of the largest state banks, Health Promotion Bureau, Government Information Department and President’s Media Division for verified information, collaborating with the World Health Organisation, Sri Lanka delegation, partnering Cargills FoodCity, the biggest supermarket chain and also working with the National Lottery Sri Lanka.