Viber Wants You to Know It's a Great Tool for Businesses, Too

If you’ve ever seen companies and brands on your Viber feed—or even find yourself added to chats with these brands—you’ve become part of the next step in the evolution of e-commerce. The growth of so-called conversational commerce or “c-commerce” was the main agenda in a casual get-together attended by three top-ranking officials of Rakuten Viber in Manila. 

The presence of the officials underscores how important the Philippines is as a market for the company that’s expanding beyond its messaging platform roots. According to Rakuten Viber’s chief revenue officer Cristina Constandache, the country is, by far, Viber’s biggest market in Asia, accounting for about 30 percent of all Viber interactions in the continent.

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It’s hard to find exact numbers, but according to a Philippine Star story from 2020, Viber had about 40 million users in the Philippines in 2020. One can only imagine how much that number has grown since then. Add to that the fact that Filipinos are some of the world’s most engaged internet users—averaging 5 hours and 47 minutes online daily—and that 83 percent of Filipinos are on some form of social media and on chat apps, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for companies to reach.

Which is what c-commerce is all about. Essentially, it’s a way for brands to quickly respond to their customers’ needs in a way that’s more natural and personal. Constandache said that, based on studies, about 71 percent of consumers want to have convenient access to brands, and a whopping 90 percent of consumers expect fast response from brands when they reach out with a question or complaint. 

This is exactly the kind of service that Viber says it can—and does—provide to brands: things like post-sales service, collecting feedback, and helping build brand loyalty. For example, brands can send files or videos and automated replies to customers. On the flipside, Viber also makes it possible for customers to do things like copy code or emails, reply to a specific business message or send photos, videos, and files to the brands.

Photo by Viber.

Then there are things like chatbots or automated messaging, shops, and easy payment solutions that simplifies interactions between brands and their customers. Based on the data Viber has collected from January to May 2022 versus the same period in 2021, there has been a 123 percent growth in its conversational business messages, which only proves how much business messages are emerging to become a vital fixture in business plans.

Next year, Constandache revealed Viber is gearing up to roll out a payment feature within the Viber app, which will only strengthen the platform’s positioning as a fintech “super app.” She said payments on Viber is already being tested in Greece.

Already, Viber has onboarded Filipino companies that have benefited from Viber’s suite of solutions for businesses. According to Berina Tanovic, senior messaging partnership manager, more than half or 51 percent of companies that are currently using Viber for business are in the retail sector, followed by 27 percent in finance, 10 percent in hospitality and travel, six percent in telecoms, three percent in health and insurance, and three percent in logistics.

All this is to say that Viber, which has never been shy to make its feelings known about certain issues, is making sure that continues to leverage its extreme popularity in the country to help businesses reach their customers more easily and efficiently.