Viber integrates new dating feature in social media app

Messaging app Rakuten Viber has launched a dating feature within the social media application that is used by more than 1 billion people.

On Tuesday, Viber said that they intended to release a secure platform that integrated a matchmaking feature within the messaging app.

“There is a fundamental flaw with how dating apps work, because once you meet your partner and you’re no longer single, you’re no longer a customer, which has an inherent conflict. One might claim that keeping you single is in the interest of the dating app. It’s not the case for us in Viber because the dating service is inside Viber,” said Viber CEO Ofir Eyal at a media event in Bonifacio Global City on Tuesday.

“We added the part before they moved to a messaging app inside Viber [instead]. For us, whether you find love or not, you are still a Viber user,” he added.

Eyal mentioned that users of Viber Dating do not have to worry about their regular contacts mixing with their dating profiles, as it was developed to be separate from the main app.

According to VIber, the feature was patterned for the Philippine market, which has high social usage for dating apps.

“The first observation is social usage, mobile usage in dating in the Philippines is super high… By far, more than 60% of couples say they started on dating apps... Philippines is one of the Viber markets with the highest usage of different types of dating apps, hence an openness to try new things,” Eyal shared.

Meanwhile, the company promised to deliver “the safest dating experience in the world” by employing alternative intelligence (AI) and manual teams in its dating system.

“Our experience in Viber for over 15 years combating fraud allows us to offer a dating experience which we believe could be the safest in the world... We aim to have the safest dating experience in the world,” Eyal said.

The Viber executive said users are not able to create a dating profile without activating Viber with their phone number.

“There is already a screening process… We employ both AI and human moderation to make sure. During the launch, every profile is seen by either AI moderation or human moderation to verify a person, a photo, to make sure a person is not doing anything fishy. We are committed to this,” he maintained.

Viber Dating was launched on February 14 and is currently in its Beta testing phase.

“We launched on Valentine’s and we’re already seeing fantastic results from the launch, which gave us the confidence to continue investing,” said Eyal.

“This became a very great alternate platform for them, especially since Viber is being used by a lot of professional users. The credible and verified users in our database helps them find good partnership,” added Viber APAC Senior Director David Tse.  —RF, GMA Integrated News