![]() “Most have failed to gain traction, while Viber and only a handful of other services have managed to establish ourselves as truly global messaging platforms.” “Our success naturally inspired many other tech companies, big and small, to enter the space to compete for the loyalty of smartphone users around the world,” Agaoua explains. Viber continued to evolve in the decade following, transforming from a simple communications tool to a “full-blown ecosystem for our users’ digital lives.” “Purple is a sign of unity which is so important in those unprecedented times of tension and division around the world.” From VoIP to an all-encompassing ecosystem But why purple? “Purple stands out in a sea of blue and green apps,” Agaoua says. For the early adopters of 2010 - who had until then been stuck using a mixture of regular phone service, SMS, poorly optimized social media websites and email to communicate with one another - the convenience of Viber was impossible to ignore. ![]() “The rest, as they say, is history,” he jokes. “At the time it was, literally, unbelievable.”īefore long, the team added a messaging function, which quickly became a core part of the app’s DNA. “With its launch, Viber disrupted the telecommunication scene as it leveraged the most advanced VoIP technologies to deliver a service that was both free but also high quality, even at lower speeds which other apps struggled with,” Agaoua relates. Clever UX design and features like phone number registration made finding contacts a breeze, and suddenly, the concept of making international calls from your mobile device had changed forever. News spread fast about this new app that lets you call your friends from anywhere in the world for free - without needing to go home and log in on the computer. “Although VoIP calls were already working for home and office broadband through the pioneer Skype, the service was not really reliable due to slow speeds of mobile networks and the technical limitations of early smartphones.” “A decade ago, international calling was a painful endeavor in terms of expensive bills and unstable quality and often the two combined,” Agaoua recalls. With the Viber app, users could make VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calls to other smartphones - a notable technical feat for 2010 that solved a common problem faced by globe-trotting smartphone users (lovebirds or otherwise). ![]() “Together, they realized that the solution lay in the internet.” “Over 10 years ago, a few friends tried to solve a problem: expensive bills for overseas calls - one of the friends was in a long-distance relationship,” he explains. Launched at the dawn of a burgeoning app economy, Agaoua describes Viber’s beginning as something of a love story. “In the tech world, turning 10 is like turning 100,” muses Rakuten Viber CEO Djamel Agaoua. 1 trillion call minutes later and Rakuten Viber is turning 10!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |