Viber, an increasingly popular mobile messaging platform in the vein of WhatsApp, wants to win its way into consumers’ hearts on a new level with the launch of a social gaming service.
The ambitious startup, purchased by Japanese Internet conglomerate Rakuten for $900 million in February, looks to follow in the footsteps of a number of successful Asian messaging services by launching a test run of three games on iOS and Android in Belarus, Malaysia, Israel, Singapore, and Ukraine. If all goes as planned, games will be deployed worldwide by next month, nearly sticking to Viber founder Talmon Marco’s promise to introduce games “before the end of 2014”.
Viber plans on integrating their new gaming service with their existing social platform by allowing users to tap their “social graph” to perform community-oriented actions like checking leaderboards and sending gifts to friends. In-game purchases will generate revenue for Viber, putting them well on the path towards fruitful app monetization. Similar business models made South Korea’s KakaoTalk profitable last year and drove Japan-based Line to $192 million in revenue in Q3 2014.
Talmon Marco is banking Viber’s success in gaming on a carefully-selected offering of games — the Viber Connect API is restricted to exclusive partners until further notice — and partnerships with respected mobile developers, like Viber Pop creator Storm8 and Wild Luck Casino creator Playtika. “We will partner with other game developers in the future, but our approach is not to have hundreds of games, just a small, highly curated selection,” Marco said in a recent interview with TechCrunch.
If you like Viber, but aren’t into games, they’ve got you covered. Game notifications and messages will be contained inside a dedicated section of the Viber app that users can easily opt out of.
All the same, Marco thinks Viber users will like their games if they give them a try — even the skeptics. “If you don’t want to play games, Viber will stay exactly how it is for you… but the games are a lot of fun,” the self-professed Viber Pop aficionado stated.
Viber’s final update for 2014 will make the app iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ compatible, bringing all current iOS devices on board for their worldwide gaming rollout next year.
