Categories
Close
Menu
Menu
Close
Search
Search

Featured Articles

News

Rakuten to acquire mobile VoIP business Viber

Mark

Share:

Print

Rate article:

No rating
Rate this article:
No rating

Japanese online specialist Rakuten, which runs a major e-commerce site in Japan as well as operating the Kobo eBook reader and Play.com brands, has acquired mobile messaging and VoIP company Viber.

The deal is worth $900 million (£538 million).

Image

Hiroshi Mikitani, Rakuten’s Chairman and CEO, 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 has attracted around 300 million registered users since launching in 2010. Customer numbers grew by over 120% in 2013.

Comments

Collapse Expand Comments (0)
You don't have permission to post comments.

Opinion Articles

Whatever happened to all my tech?

ExclusiveWhatever happened to all my tech?

Mark Bridge writes:

I've been taking a look back at the devices I've written about during the past few years. Some are still faithful companions, others... well, let's just say my faith was misplaced.

ExclusivePredictions for 2016: Network Function Virtualisation, 4G throttling and video calling

Mark Windle, head of marketing at OpenCloud, predicts that this year’s reduction in the number of traditional telecoms operators in some countries will provide an opportunity for other operators to innovate and capture market share in 2016.

He says next year will be a year of rapid change for telecoms… whether it’s MVNO disruption, competitive tariff pricing or simply defence from the ‘dark art’ of hacking.

Kapture review: the audio-recording wristband

ExclusiveKapture review: the audio-recording wristband

Mark Bridge writes:

The most memorable moments in life often go unrecorded. You don't have your camera in your hands. Your finger is still hovering over the 'pause' button on your audio recorder. Or you were simply too busy experiencing whatever was happening. It's all about the one that got away.

That's where Kapture can help.

RSS
12345678910Last

Recent Podcasts

ExclusivePodcast - 27th October 2010

This week's podcast includes big news from Nokia along with the rest of the week's industry headlines. There's also an interview with Jamie Driver from MedHand about putting medical information on mobile phones.

ExclusivePodcast - 20th October 2010

In this week's podcast we talk to Clive Bayley, managing director of Fonehouse, about the current state of the UK market for mobile phone dealers. There's also a look at the week's major mobile headlines, from O2's location-based marketing to Apple's quarterly results.

ExclusivePodcast - 13th October 2010

This week's podcast sees the long-awaited launch of Windows Phone 7, the creation of the GSMA's mWomen project and a wide variety of other mobile industry news, from legal action to SMS marketing.

ExclusivePodcast - 6th October 2010

Iain, James and Mark take their usual entertaining look at the UK's mobile phone industry, from irresponsible texting to patent wars. There's also an interview with Steve Jarrett of MePlease who explains how his company could transform the way people think about mobile marketing.

ExclusivePodcast - 29th September 2010

This week's edition of The Fonecast covers the new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, Windows Phone 7, the EC, mobile advertising and accessory sales. There's also an interview with Dave Tharp from Roulette Cricket about his company's success in the Vodafone Mobile Clicks 2010 competition.

RSS
First6061626365676869Last

Follow thefonecast.com

Archive Calendar

«August 2026»
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
272829303112
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31123456

Archive