Viber’s New Dating Platform Finds Its Biggest Market in Manila

Who knew you could find your partner at the same place you make business calls?

During a visit to Makati on Oct. 13, Rakuten Viber Senior Director for Asia-Pacific David Tse told Philippine journalists that the Philippines is their fastest-growing dating market, contributing 56 percent of all new dating profiles year-to-date.

Overall, the communication platform's new monthly active users saw an uptick of 96 percent year-on-year, while year-to-date revenues went up 95 percent.

Manila has also consistently been Viber's biggest market in general and is also the number one active paying subscriber to the app's premium services.

ALSO READ:

Viber Taps Into the 'Filipino Community Spirit' in Quest to Become a Superapp

Rakuten Viber Launches In-App Digital Payment in the Philippines

"So Viber is helping people communicate with relationships they already have, but we are also helping them to create new relationships and connections," Tse said.

It's no secret that most major communication platforms have had that perennial issue of dealing with scammers and criminality within these close-knit ecosystems they need to stringently oversee.

It would be logical to assume that the prevalent "love scams" across other social networking services could run rampant in a place where emotional attachment could blind users from nefarious intentions.

"Our commitment to privacy and security remains the same," the APAC Senior Director said.

"Viber dating has its own mechanism to also detect undesirable accounts."

Tse added that most users lauded Viber dating's emphasis on filtering fake users and kicking out sketchy characters, which have been far too common on major standalone dating apps.

In February last year, Viber became the communications app to offer an integrated, modern, and secure dating solution.

Tse has said that Viber Dating stemmed from findings from focus group discussions involving users wanting genuine connections and high-quality matches via a platform that allows them to keep their identities private and under their control.

"For many, online fraud has taken the joy out of meeting new people, while the frustration of being stuck with expensive apps that leave them feeling trapped and single continues to grow," he said in a statement. "As a super app, we are here to break this cycle and bring back the excitement of real connections with real people."

READ MORE:

Making Meaningful Connections: PH Dubbed as 'Viber Country'