As mobile and instant messaging services become popular, Viber is now looking at localisation of content — especially stickers (animated smileys and emoticons).
Viber, a Cyprus-based messaging service, was initially launched as a free voice-calling app. It has close to 19 million users in India and approximately 300 million, globally.
Market sources say such emoticons and animated smileys are good for business.
According to Anubhav Nayyar, Country Manager, Viber, localisation could be in the form of festival-specific or occasion-specific offerings, inclusion of regional language stickers and use of popular Indian cartoon characters.
The company already has stickers featuring international cartoon characters such as Garfield and Kung Fu Panda.
“Stickers have good traction in messaging apps; apart from doodles, video sharing and voice messages. We are looking at localisation of content to make things more user friendly,” he told Business Line .
Localised content might be introduced in a major way over the next calendar year (2015), Nayyar added.
Also called over-the-top (OTT) services, Viber took steps towards monetising its sticker store last year. Users buy stickers at a price ranging between ₹120 and ₹140 per pack of 50-60. Some can be downloaded for free. Viber competes with WhatsApp, Skype, and WeChat in the instant messaging space.
Voice Calls According to Nayyar, the company is looking to capitalise on its voice calling services – called Viber Out – by partnering telecom operators.
The service enables calls between two users who have downloaded the app and between a user and non-user.
Voice calls are provided over the internet (VOIP) which means that the entire call is converted into data thereby making it a cheaper option. For example, a ₹15 per minute international call can come as cheap as ₹2 in VOIP.
Incidentally, telcos have been critical of OTTs, which have hit not just their SMS revenues, but are also now nibbling at the voice segment.
“We are looking at partnerships with telcos where they would have Viber-specific data packages that may allow unlimited usage, including voice calls, at a price. That way, whatever the telco loses on voice calls over the Internet is substituted through data,” he added.