Viber seeks to capture 1M micro enterprises in PH

Global messaging giant Rakuten Viber launched business accounts for micro and small businesses in the Philippines on Tuesday as it aims to support their growth.

At a press briefing in Pasay City, Viber senior director for Asia Pacific David Tse and chief revenue officer Cristina Constandache introduced the messaging platform’s new feature.

“Yes, it’s a [market] place like your own website on the phone, but it is more convenient. This is important because it is connected to their [businesses’] contacts,”  Tse said.

The Viber Asia Pacific official said there are one million microbusinesses in the Philippines.

Asked if Viber, which currently has 71% penetration in the Philippines, is eyeing capturing the one million microenterprises in the country, he replied, “Of course.”

“But we don’t want to put a timeline because, at the end of the day, we want to give them what they need. I wouldn’t put any target per se; for us, growing the business is important,” Tse said.

“We have started out beta with 7,000 [business accounts], and in fact, right now, 8,000. We are doing more and more to understand how businesses behave and what they want... We are evolving as we get more businesses,” he said, adding that “now after we launch, we are growing more than 8,000.”

Tse said that Viber has an algorithm to filter out scams as they aim to grow the number of business account users.

“We also filter inappropriate companies; all these things, even violent ones, we detect. No fake accounts or inappropriate accounts. This protects the users and the company they are building,” he said. —VBL, GMA Integrated News