MESSAGING PLATFORM Rakuten Viber is partnering with the Department of Tourism (DoT) to make accredited local tour operators accessible to travelers through business accounts on its application.
Rakuten Viber Senior Director for Asia-Pacific David Tse said the initiative would allow travelers to search for DoT-accredited tourism operators and inquire directly about their services through the messaging platform.
“We want to support local tourism business through Viber Business account and make [these businesses] discoverable within the app,” Mr. Tse said during a media briefing on Tuesday.
The partnership comes ahead of the fourth-quarter holiday travel period, when the company expects increased activity among travelers.
Mr. Tse said the initiative is intended to make smaller tourism operators easier to find through the application. He said the fragmented nature of local tour businesses makes it difficult for consumers to identify service providers.
The initiative adds to Viber’s existing partnerships with government agencies and telecommunications companies.
These include arrangements with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), Globe Telecom, Inc., Smart Communications, Inc., and DITO Telecommunity Corp. involving measures against spam and online fraud.
PHILIPPINE MARKET
Rakuten Viber said it expects monthly active users in the Philippines to increase by 16.5% year on year, although it did not disclose the projected number of users or the period covered by the forecast.
Daily time spent on the application increased by 24% year on year, placing the Philippines first among its markets globally in terms of time spent per user, according to the company.
The number of paying Viber Plus subscribers in the country rose 34% year on year, while year-to-date revenue from the subscription service increased by 75%.
Rakuten Viber said the Philippines was its largest market globally in terms of Viber Plus revenue contribution.
Monthly active users of Viber Dating increased by 96% year on year. The company said the Philippines accounted for 56% of new dating profiles created globally in the year to date.
Active business accounts increased by 20.5% year on year, while business interactions rose 127%, making the Philippines its second-fastest-growing market for business interactions, according to the company.
“There are two dimensions to this growth. More people are using Viber, and second, these users are finding more reasons to use [the app]. Viber is connecting people with people, people with new relationships, and increasingly people with businesses,” Mr. Tse said.
AI AND PAYMENT SERVICES
Rakuten Viber Chief Revenue Officer Cristina Constandache said data processed by the platform’s artificial intelligence (AI) features developed through its integration with OpenAI are not used to train AI models.
“None of the data that is used to actually activate these features is used to train AI models in the background,” Ms. Constandache said.
She also said the company’s Viber Pay service was awaiting final regulatory clearance from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas before its planned Philippine launch.
“From a product perspective, on a commercial side, the product is ready and we have obtained the licenses that would allow us now to launch the product. But in the meantime, the regulatory authorities still need to give a final go-ahead,” she said. — Juliana Chloe A. Gonzales