Messaging apps for companies: The Viber business account

Viber is one of the most popular messaging apps in Eastern and parts of Southern Europe and in many Asian countries. It has exciting features for companies, from broadcasts and chatbots to in-app payment options. In the following guide, we take a closer look at the potential of a Viber business account. 

Viber is often perceived as an outsider in the messaging world, especially when compared to the world's most popular messaging apps like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. However, that's selling the potential of Viber short, especially in a business context. In fact, Viber is more popular than many might think, which makes the instant messaging app very interesting for customer communication. 

Viber, which now belongs to the Japanese Rakuten Group, has been growing steadily since it was founded in 2010 and has currently (2024) over one billion users, on Android alone. This makes Viber more popular worldwide than Facebook Messenger!

In Southeast Asia and many parts of Europe, Viber is THE messaging service for private chats. But Viber also offers enormous potential for companies. In this guide, we're going to show you exactly what the Viber business account has to offer.

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Viber in a nutshell

• Claim: The better WhatsApp alternative in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia
• Number of users worldwide: More than 1.4 billion unique user IDs (as of most recent data from 2022)
• Focus markets: Russia, Greece, Bulgaria, Philippines
• Features: Broadcasts, in-chat payments and chatbots
• Advantage: If end users don't have a Viber account, company messages are sent as SMS messages
• High penalties for suspected spam, which allows for safe messaging and loyal user base

Things to know about Viber

The history of Viber

Viber was originally founded by four Israeli developers. Since 2017, Viber has officially been known as Rakuten Viber, as the Japanese e-commerce giant acquired a majority stake in Viber Media back in 2014.

The messaging app, which can be used on both, mobile (iOS & Android) and desktop, basically has everything that the "Big Three", WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and WeChat, offer.

In addition to the basics (text, video and photo messaging), the chat app also includes audio and video calls via VoIP (Viber Out), stickers and GIFs, communities, instant voice and video, chat extensions, deletion of viewed messages, multi-platform approach (syncing of video calls via desktop). Similar to WhatsApp, Viber now also has click-to-chat buttons that users can use to enter into a direct conversation with companies.

Security

Viber calls, messages and media sharing have been secured with end-to-end encryption since app version 6.0. This means that nobody outside of sender and recipient has access to the text messages.

In addition to the standard end-to-end encryption, Viber offers its users additional features to make sure that their chats are even more secure. With hidden chats, conversations can be hidden from the main chat list and secured with a PIN. For secret chats, a self-destruct timer can be set for each message in a conversation so that the message is automatically deleted from the Viber chat after it has been read.

In addition, Viber doesn't store any messages on its servers.

User stats

According to a Rakuten quarterly report from September 2022, Viber had 1.4 billion (unique) registered users worldwide and, according to some external estimates, around 820 million active users per month (MAU) in 2023. 

Currently, Viber is active in 190 countries and users send an average of 30 messages per day and open the app twelve times a day. 

For comparison: WhatsApp has two billion MAU worldwide. However, Viber is more popular than WhatsApp among users in Eastern Europe and Russia. In 2018, Viber overtook WhatsApp in Russia with 100 million users.

Features

Viber offers users a wide variety of features, like sending messages and making voice and video calls. 

There are also group chats known as "communities". These large chat rooms offer members the opportunity to follow companies or celebrities. In theory, these communities can be found using the search function, but this doesn't happen automatically. Admins have to request this, and Viber only includes communities with at least 1,000 members in its index.

Another interesting feature is VoiP calling, Viber Out. Similar to Skype, users can set up a subscription and make cheap calls from Viber to standard phones.

What opportunities does a Viber business account offer?

Viber first launched specific solutions for companies in 2016. This included features such as sending marketing messages, the ability to integrate chatbots and, well before WhatsApp, Viber launched a channels function that allowed users to search for and follow company profiles.  

Viber currently offers three business solutions: The free app for small businesses (since October 2023) and the paid options of Viber Business Messages and Viber Chatbots. The latter two can also be combined with one another and also provide analytics options and integration into CRM systems. What's particularly exciting is that, in some countries, customers can already pay directly in Viber chat via Viber Pay.

Viber Business App

In October 2023, Viber launched a business app for small businesses. This version is free and contains some slimmed-down features for companies. Companies can create a profile here, upload information about their business, add a product catalog and directly communicate with customers. 

However, this solution doesn't offer marketing messages or chatbots, so it's actually very similar in scope to the free WhatsApp Business App. 

Viber Business Messages

Companies can use Viber Business Messages to communicate with (potential) customers through Viber. Viber supports transactional messages (e.g., shipping confirmation) as well as service messages for consultation and customer service, but also marketing messages such as newsletters or advertisements (after prior opt-in).

The special thing about Viber is that companies can also reach users who don't have Viber installed. In that case, the messages are sent as SMS.

How much do Viber Business Messages cost?

Companies pay for all business messages sent on Viber Business Messages. That being said, only the notifications that reach the end user have to be paid for. Costs differ depending on the recipient's country code.

There's a limit of 10,000 free messages a month. It's also possible to send messages automatically by chatbot on Viber. Until 2022, these were free of charge. Since September 2022, however, Viber has also been charging a fee for this. 

Viber also offers a specialized business solution for e-commerce companies and online stores (Viber Message Commerce). Online stores can be directly incorporated into the message history.

Viber chatbots

Besides Viber Business Messages, companies can also choose to use the Chatbot option. Chatbots can be used to answer customer requests automatically, directly and 24/7. 

Chatbots can also send newsletters or marketing messages via automation.

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How companies can set up a Viber business account

Companies can set up a business account through Viber Messaging Partners (such as Sinch Engage). In this case, the partner takes over the technical process and supports the companies while setting up the profile, integrating the logo and verification. 

As soon as the company is verified, Viber sends a "Unique ID" that the company can use to activate their account. For the blue checkmark (verified profile), Viber carries out another manual verification process.

Companies that are successfully using Viber

Are there already best practices from companies that send Viber Messenger newsletters? Actually, yes, many companies and organizations are already using Viber. We've compiled a few examples for you.

FC Barcelona on Viber Messenger

Viber is the official communication channel used by the soccer club FC Barcelona. The aim of their Viber communication is to strengthen the bond between the club and their fans by providing them with exclusive news and information from the club. 

In the "Ultimate FC Barcelona Fan" section, fans can vote for their "Man of the Match" or predict how many goals will be scored, just to give a few examples. The player with the most votes at the end of the season is voted "Player of the Year".

Tech Talk on Viber 

The digital tech education platform successfully sends out broadcast messages using Viber. The service informs users about the latest and trends and innovations in technology. Users can select a topic category that they want to be informed about regularly.

 

Conclusion of potential of Viber for businesses

Compared to other instant messaging services, Viber is not as popular as WhatsApp or Telegram. Despite that, the target audience of high-income, tech-savvy millennials is certainly appealing for companies. 

In terms of features, Viber also offers an exciting package ranging from marketing and chatbots to direct in-chat payments, which is something that only Apple Messages for Business offers to this extent. 

Additionally, if your business is active in Viber markets such as Greece, Ukraine, or the Philippines, you should definitely consider including Viber in your customer communication. 

🔥Tip: With professional messenger solutions such as Sinch Engage, you can set up Viber Messenger, as well as manage other channels such as Telegram and WhatsApp at the same time. That way, your customers can contact you through their favorite messaging app, and you can manage all customer conversations centrally.

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