Andre Yoskowitz
15 Feb 2014 9:18
Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten has announced it is acquiring the popular VoIP, messaging company Viber for $900 million.
Rakuten, which is sometimes called the Amazon of Japan, has been moving from its retail roots (including owning Buy.com) and moving into the digital space with recent acquisitions and launches of Kobo, Wuaki.tv, and Viki.
Viber has over 300 million registered users, and its global base grew 120 percent in 2013.
"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," said Rakuten Chairman and CEO, Hiroshi Mikitani.
Towards the end of last year, Viber launched a Skype competitor, with a free desktop service of their own to complement their mobile app for iOS and Android.