गाउँको दूरदराजदेखि काठमाडौंको सिंहदरबारसम्म

what’s to come in 2023 

Rakuten Viber, one of the world’s leaders in voice-based communication and instant messaging services, shares the main trends that defined how Nepalese users and brands have been using the app in 2022. Rakuten Viber, the communication app, owned by the Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten, which has over 1B Android downloads worldwide, has been widely used both by users and brands this year.

Unleashing creativity with lenses and stickers

Viral and interactive, Viber Stickers and Lenses allow users to express themselves creatively while chatting. Viber introduced Lenses on its platform more than a year ago and revealed that since then they have been used almost 1 Billion times. Realizing the growing trend for augmented reality and visual content, Viber lets brands and organizations create their own Lenses and Stickers on the app to strengthen their image and increase brand awareness.

Advancing brand-user interactions

71% of consumers want to have convenient access to communication with a business. Seeing this shift in consumer expectations, more and more global and Nepal brands turn to Viber to keep in touch with the audience, create seamless brand-user interactions, and reach users at each step of their customer journey.

Apart from Lenses and Stickers, businesses are seen leveraging advertising solutions to increase their visibility and attract new users. In 2022, the number of average monthly ads impressions on Viber reached astounding 6B worldwide, with more than 52.7M impressions in Nepal. Among the top-performing ads verticals worldwide: travel & hospitality which grew by 75%, real estate by 65%, and jobs & education by 34%, food & beverages by 23%, and fashion by 22%.

This year brands showed an even stronger interest in Viber business messaging solutions as a tool to build connections with consumers in their favorite messaging app. Over 10M messages were sent and received in chatbots, revealing the popularity of this automated tool for round-the-clock support. In 2022, Viber in Nepal got this type of growth in the following area:

A 50% growth in the number of new business message accounts created compared to the number of “newcomers” in 2021.

An overall 128% increase of business messages delivered.

A 204% increase in transactional messages (order confirmations, delivery trackings, appointment reminders, one-time passwords, and more).

An 122% growth in the number of promotional messages (e.g. special offers, discounts).

A 22% surge in conversational messages (e.g. around-sales support, receiving feedback, and more).

Staying Hyperlocal

Supporting education and sports initiatives in Nepal

Aside from creating a safe environment for communication, Viber strives to stay hyperlocal and support the Nepali community. As part of its Education Initiative, Viber has partnered with 100 schools around the country to help students share and receive hybrid educational support beyond the classroom. In collaboration with SpellBee, Nepal’s first spelling contest, Viber enabled students across the country to register for the contest virtually via Chatbot on the app and digitize the audition so it’s accessible to as many students as possible.

Apart from educational activities, Viber also associated with Hisense, one of the global sponsors of the World Cup, for the local football campaign during the championship. With weekly giveaways and football-themed sticker packs, Viber and Hisense heightened the football craze among people. There are 90k users on the football channel on Viber, which has grown stronger during the tournament, providing unique engagement with star players like Kiran Chemjong and Anil Gurung.

Once again, the trends seen in the app and Viber initiatives throughout the year demonstrate the app’s versatility and ability to go beyond messaging.

Trends for the future

Viber will be taking a few major steps along its path as a superapp next year. First, the app will give brands the opportunity to host all their business information, services, and channels of communication on Viber in a single meta-business entity, and let users easily find businesses they need and interact with them.

Additionally, Viber will be introducing a dedicated folder that will help users organize their conversations with brands in a way that’s convenient to them, improve user experience, and boost brand visibility.

“Our updates are a major milestone for the app and lay the foundation for future features Viber plans to introduce as part of its superapp strategy: to increase the utility of the app to the users and expand ways in which brands can connect with their audience, bringing more value for both parties, faster and in fewer steps.”–says Cristina Constandache, Chief Revenue Officer at Rakuten Viber. “The numbers mentioned above once again prove that we are developing our app in the right direction, as both users and brands increasingly use Viber in their day-to-day communication and routines.”

About Rakuten Viber

Rakuten Viber connects people. No matter who they are, or where they are from. The global user base has access to a range of features like one-on-one chats, video calls, group messaging, and updates and discussions with their favorite brands and celebrities. Viber ensures our users have a secure and free environment to share their emotions. Rakuten Viber is part of Rakuten Group, Inc., a world leader in e-commerce and financial services. It is the official instant messaging and calling app partner of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.

For businesses, Viber offers messaging solutions (chatbots, business messages), display ads, branded stickers and lenses, and the forthcoming business calling solutions. All these tools help businesses to reach their customers at each stage of the customer journey.

All private, group chats and private calls on Viber are protected by built-in end-to-end encryption, and Viber Business Messages have encryption in transit, so users and brands can be sure that their conversations are always secure.