Viber has been around for almost a decade now and recently reached over a billion users worldwide, making them one of the top communication apps globally. While being present in every country, the app has managed to customise their services in 10-15 countries, so that the content would better suit local audiences.
This is especially true when it comes to the Asia-Pacific region, where smartphone penetration is at 70% and acts as a potential growth accelerator for Viber. Currently, the region accounts for nearly 25% of their overall global user base.
During a roundtable session held last week (24) with Viber Asia-Pacific Director Anubhav Nayyar, The Sunday Morning Business learnt that Sri Lanka was among the top five markets for Viber in the region. He explained that this was purely because of three factors, namely the overall market size and penetration, encouraging and healthy growth numbers, and the huge potential the market holds.
?For a country with a population of 22 million, I do think the quality of the audience we have in Sri Lanka is extremely good; from what we have seen, everybody has more reasons and occasions to use us. The time spent on the app is important and I think in Sri Lanka, we see that to be higher than the global average.?
Sri Lanka currently houses 14 million registered Viber users, with an activation growth rate of 13-14% over the previous year. This growth is not only attributed to the usage in larger cities like Colombo and Kandy, but also to smaller towns in rural parts of the country.
?We have seen the usage of Viber grow in other regions in the country, and have data to show that usage. We have also spoken with certain organisations and people, which have confirmed that even the smallest parts of the country also use our services,? said Nayyar.
He also attributed this widespread usage to the infrastructure of the internet in the country and the subsidised prices of smartphones, both of which have given people access to the app.
During the roundtable, Nayyar stated that Viber introduced a new local interface to their platform in January which includes both Tamil and Sinhala languages, in order to provide higher accessibility to their users in Sri Lanka. He explained that while the English penetration in the country is much higher than other countries in the Asian region, they believe that localisation is the future for apps and services such as Viber.
While having entered the Sri Lankan market in 2010, when the app was launched globally, Viber had begun investing in localising the app and partnering with other Sri Lankan organisations back in 2015.
Nayyar claimed that they have seen their localised stickers do well in the Sri Lankan market, when it comes to connecting with their user base. Taking the Sri Lankan Sinhalese and Tamil New Year as an example, he stated that they traditionally do something specifically cultural during April for their local users.
He explained that the response they saw was a key factor when they looked at introducing Sinhala and Tamil as languages on the platform. It was also driven by the fact that their user base also included non-English speakers from rural parts of the country.
?We included the languages in January because we felt that this was very important for the country and specifically for our non-English-speaking users.?
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