Viber messaging service celebrates two new milestones; of surpassing 100 million active users and more than 360 million unique registered users on its platform.
Viber, the popular VoIP and messaging app, announced two new milestones Tuesday that shows the company's consistent growth in the highly competitive market. First, the platform has surpassed the100 million-mark for its active user-base and now houses more than 360 million unique registered members. The significant growth comes mainly due to its extensive reach on multiple platforms.
Viber, which was recently acquired by Rakuten for $900 million, is celebrating the success of its new milestone by updating its desktop app with a new aesthetic look and updated sticker menu. The company has also improved the video quality and performance on Viber Desktop. In addition to the overhauled UI, the app for desktop has also added Spanish and Portuguese support.
"As usage increases, our priority remains the same-introducing features, adding more platforms, and improving Viber with every new version," PCMag quoted Viber CEO Talmon Marco as saying in a statement. "This is exactly what we've done with the new Viber Desktop, and we're really excited for users to try it out."
Despite the strong user-base, Viber still falls short ahead of messaging rivals such as WhatsApp, which recently announced 500 monthly active users on its platform. The VoIP and messaging service also competes with other apps like Kik Messenger, BBM, Line, KakaoTalk and many more that have flooded the category. Viber recently added Skype to its rival list after it introduced Viber Out calling service last year.
Viber started off its journey with mobile devices and jumped into desktop as it expanded its reach to more platforms last year, offering its free calling and messaging service on PC and Mac computers. The company also launched an app for Windows 8 last year, with full live tiles support, pin to start menu and more. Besides, the company never stopped updating its current apps on existing platforms, as it recently did a complete makeover with a flat aesthetic design for iPhone.
The service also attracted some heat in April when researchers from the University of New Haven's Cyber Forensics Research & Education Group discovered that Viber sent images, videos and map locations without encryption and stored the info on its servers in plain text for at least a week. But the company quickly addressed the matter and said it fixed the vulnerability.
