Free App Viber Set to Adopt e-Commerce After $900 Million Buyout

[The Fuse Joplin]

Rakuten, a Japanese e-commerce company and one of the largest of its kind in the Asian country, recently managed to agree a deal to buy Viber.

The app cost the company close to $1 billion, which has led to many questioning the value of the deal. Viber has more than 400 million users across the world with most of its revenue stream coming from sticker purchases. It offers the ability to make free calls across the world. Users can also send text messages as well.

Commercial Plans with Viber

It is estimated that users will be spending around $2 on these stickers, which works out to be net revenue of $800 million per year. Rakuten, though, has not bought Viber entirely for this purpose, as revealed by the global vice chief marketing officer of the company, Shin Hasegawa. He says that mobile e-commerce will continue to play a major role in the revenue stream of Viber, but the company plans to integrate Viber into the e-commerce division.

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