Japanese Internet Giant Aquires Viber For 900M

Rakuten Inc,one of Japan’s largest Internet companies, which offers services from financing to shopping to online video on its e-commerce platform, the largest in Japan, has announced that it will acquire messaging app Viber for $900 million.The internet giant explained that the acquisition would help the company become a platform for digital content, not just a provider of free voice calls and messages.

Viber is one of the top most downloaded smartphone phone call and messaging apps, and counts the United States, Australia and Russia among its biggest markets.Viber competes with instant messaging apps such as WeChat, a unit of Chinese Internet firm Tencent Holdings Ltd, U.S. rival WhatsApp, and Line, owned by Korean company Naver Corp .

The Rakuten-Viber pairing may pose a significant challenge to Line, which announced that had 300 million registered users back in November 2013 and is aiming for the 500 million milestone in 2014. Like Line, Viber users can also purchase and send stickers to one another, and it recently added Viber Out, which enables free calls to mobile and landline numbers, making it a rival to Skype. Viber’s apps do not currently have games, one of Line’s key draws, but CEO Hiroshi Mikitani hinted that games are part of Rakuten’s future plans for the messaging service.

The acquisition by Rakuten is expected to be completed by the end of March, both companies said.