Rakuten Viber seeks to deepen roots in PH
SINGAPORE—Rakuten Viber, the company behind the popular calling and messaging app, seeks to further expand its footprint in the Philippines, which has been a driving force in shaping its global strategy over recent years.
Cristina Constandache, chief revenue officer at Rakuten Viber, says the “ultimate goal” is to increase both its market share and penetration by introducing new features and improving existing ones.
“We want to strengthen the position in the Philippines and the adoption, and we want to make sure that we answer real consumer needs in Philippines, first and foremost, and then we look at what can be adapted to the rest of Southeast Asia,” Constandache tells the Inquirer in an interview.
Constandache says the Philippines presents a unique opportunity for the company to scale up its business, given Viber’s strong market presence and the country’s economy that continues to grow despite internal and external challenges.
“It’s a country that, over the years, has shown tremendous growth to this day. Despite the high penetration, we are still experiencing a double-digit growth year over year,” Constandache says.
Constandache says Southeast Asia is a “very dynamic” economy, and the Philippines is aligned with Rakuten Viber’s business intent to drive digitalization for small and medium businesses.
Being a business-centric country offers Rakuten Viber the incentive to create solutions catering to the needs of entrepreneurs, including the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), which account for 99.63 percent of establishments nationwide, based on government data.
“We know out of the economies in the region, the Philippines is heavily reliant on platforms like Viber to help entrepreneurs grow. It’s, however, a trend that we are not seeing in the rest of the world as much,” she adds.
The company executive describes the Philippines as an important market for Rakuten Viber, ranking it among the firm’s top global markets in both business growth and goals, and serving as a testing ground for new services.
“Everything that we are launching or the products that we are considering are considered first and foremost with the Philippines in mind when it comes to Southeast Asia. After that, depending on the adoption of these products and services, we are considering how to take them out of Asia,” she says.
Enhancements
As such, Rakuten Viber will continue enhancing products already in the platform, including Viber Marketplace or Viber Business Plus and Viber Ads Manager, which have shown “very good traction” since their launch.
Viber Marketplace or Viber Business Plus enables users to easily find and quickly connect with thousands of local businesses.
To date, it has recorded more than 2 million interactions, which, according to Constandache, is considered a “huge success” even if it was only launched in September.
On the other hand, Viber Ads Manager is a self-service advertising platform enabling small and medium agencies and advertisers in the country to independently run ad campaigns in target markets.
Viber Ads Manager, meanwhile, has reported triple-digit growth since its inception in July.
She says, “The numbers overall remain low because the product is one month old, but it has been amazing—it had amazing uptake in a very short period of time.”
Rakuten Viber has lined up various product improvements between the fourth quarter of this year and the first quarter of next year, particularly for marketplace, to ensure “the search results are as relevant as they can be,” she says.
In parallel, Rakuten Viber is working on launching Viber Pay in the country, which remains a top strategic priority for the firm despite rollout delays due to circumstances beyond their control.
“While it hasn’t theoretically moved from last time due to legislation and the fact that we need to fine-tune the product in order to meet all the changing financial regulations, it is very much imagined to enhance the products for SMEs,” she says.
“It remains a key initiative of the company,” she adds.
