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

Rakuten-run Viber has been expanding its features and services for its growing global user base, even hinging on an e-commerce platform, a forthcoming e-wallet option, and even an offbeat feature such as Viber Dating.

With the Philippines being its second biggest market, Viber Chief Revenue Officer Cristina Constandache says the burgeoning small and medium enterprise landscape within the Southeast Asian nation coupled with the innate community spirit and conversational type of business model is crucial to ramping up the app’s client base and even boosting the Philippine economy in the long run.

Esquire Philippines recently sat down with the Viber executive a day after her keynote speech at the eCommerce Expo x DMEXCO Asia at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Center in Singapore on October 8.

“We're looking to allow this community spirit to, let's say, not manifest itself, but to express itself in the app by allowing small family-owned businesses or entrepreneurial businesses to find and connect with consumers and potential clients around them in order to help them push their business forward and improve their livelihood,” she said in an interview, citing already over two million new marketplace interactions in the Philippines alone highlighting the pull of this sought after "community-feel" being cultivated on the app.

Viber Chief Revenue Officer Cristina Constandache speaks at the eCommerce Expo x DMEXCO Asia on the app's new features and platforms

“Obviously, the focus has to be on small and medium enterprises, despite the fact that we don't expect them to become a main revenue driver, but in terms of feature and engagement, they are the main focus because this is what drives their business forward.

Constandache adds that users should not see these expansions, such as dating or the upcoming Viber Pay e-wallet option, as "either/or"  alternatives over existing dating and e-wallet platforms.

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The platform has yet to fully roll out its e-wallet platform, Viber Pay, as it continues to work with the Philippine central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, to clear regulatory requirements.

“Even when we're looking at our messaging apps, we are not expecting people to completely stop using one product in order to move to us,” Constandache said, commenting on a critical differentiator among all of Viber’s services against existing platforms.

“It's ease of use, it's the utility aspect of it, and then of course, depending on how they live their life, they can use everything else in addition to that.”

Viber: The Swiss-army knife app

Rakuten Viber has gradually been working its way to becoming a so-called “super app” designed to be a Swiss Army type of service that would meet the diverse demands of the Filipino market in the middle of the digital revolution, among these community-run businesses.

Viber launched its Marketplace platform on September 10 with the aim of connecting users to thousands of local businesses and driving growth among Filipino-owned micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Business owners also have the option to subscribe to Viber Business Plus, which would boost a business’ visibility and reach on the app.

It also expanded its messaging capabilities via the Carousel message feature, which bridges different industries and businesses via scrollable cards for easy-to-read promotions and limited-time offers.

Based on a 2022 Manulife survey, 41 percent of Filipinos had set up their own business, and 65 percent said that they started patronizing small and micro businesses when the coronavirus pandemic hit.

To give you a national context, Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., in August, said his administration is strongly keen on rolling out an MSME masterplan to boost the competitiveness of these enterprises that are key drivers of the economy.

These businesses account for more than 99 percent of all Philippine businesses, which Marcos calls the “backbone of the economy” and “sparks of innovation” in local industries.

Constandache says that the Viber Communities platform was never meant for business usage and only became a key business networking platform because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The communities were hijacked by business usage during COVID because of a particular circumstance that happened during COVID, where businesses had to close and all of a sudden they had to keep in touch with their customers," she told Esquire Philippines.

"The reason why we're pivoting to a business account is because we want to ensure that the personal messaging experience, even in a group environment, remains separated from a business, in order to also protect the user's privacy and preferences when it comes to being approached and communicated to from a business perspective."

Based on requested Viber data, there has been a 250 percent year-on-year growth of Viber Plus subscribers, with 40-60 percent of those paying for these subscriptions in Southeast Asia being 18-34 years old.

About 50 percent of Viber users in the Philippines belong to that age demographic. Viber also saw a 109 percent year-over-year growth in business accounts found in the Philippines.

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

Stillbased on Viber data, 92 percent of users started conversations within 60 seconds of matching and less than two days to strike up a chat with a match upon creating a profile.

David Tse, senior director at Rakuten Viber in the Asia Pacific Region, 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."

The Philippines is Viber’s second biggest market next to Myanmar and has seen an 11 percent growth in Viber month-on-month growth in Viber dating profiles since it launched in February.

"So we want to continue to improve the e-commerce experience, the dating experience, the security and privacy, adding payments when they are ready and in a context that they make sense," Constandache said.

"Businesses in Asia, and especially markets like the Philippines that are very much led by small businesses, have changing needs but at a speed that is unseen anywhere else in Europe, for example."