The difference is that, in addition to the mobile world, Viber also oversees the desktop, especially with the latest updates for Linux, Mac, and PC. Much soul-platform. The direction, then, is clear: to compete with the American but also with the Chinese WeChat and compatriot Line. With a new chapter of the (partial) derby of the East. The innovation involves not just the Italian market has always been the most comfortable for Viber. The billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO of Rakuten according to Forbes, and the fourth richest person in the country, which has to be satisfied: port in Tokyo something like 225 million registered users, although other sources say 300. Which in theory could add up to almost 300 already in some way connected to the other forty Japanese company’s services, strong at home but still weak on the international market. It looks like the perfect crime: in a few months, the new Japanese pole could easily grab the industry-leading applications. And again upset the balance of a fund with huge growth potential.
If in fact the tip Line 500 million users by 2014, WhatsApp has just passed the 400 mark. They do not seem so far from the new player who will be born from the operation just announced. Rakuten, in addition to having snatched at a price lower than symbolically billion app in excellent shape, has acquired two years ago, Kobo, the Canadian e-reading platform, for $ 350 million. Covers about 20 percent of the global field of electronic book readers with the Touch model, Glo, Mini and Aura. It has one foot in Europe, through a series of e-commerce that has forced him to change the flag between 2010 and 2011: Play.com are the British, the French and the German Tradoria Price Minister. It is not enough. Mikitani has invested $ 100 million in Pinterest, the social network that allows you to build photo boards with images that we like and what we encounter in the course of browsing online. Here, too, great news: +150 percent of users in 2013, touched the threshold of 250 million subscribers. At full company portfolio, which moves in dozens of directions, including financial management, there are also other purchases here and there as Wuaki.tv, a service of streaming tv Spanish, and Viki, the collaborative platform for streaming video.
The picture, in short, no matter how diverse it actually seems pretty clear. Integrating the various services and the various instruments in the hands of a single frame. Pointing to what, for any big company that moves between hi-tech and Web, it is now essential: an ecosystem made up of different possibilities, from social instant messaging via the e-commerce up to the tv online. All accessible with a single account. “This acquisition represents a totally new strategy that will make a quantum leap in Rakuten,” said Mikitani, who had recently announced a resounding 80 per cent leap in profits of his group, according to the data of 2013. While the Israeli Talmon Marco, CEO and founder of Viber, explained that the combination of the two brands “represents a great opportunity for Viber to increase even more rapid growth of users both in existing markets and on new squares.” From the United States, Australia and Russia, where it has a strong presence to the rest of the world. The goal, if he had not understood, “is to become the number one platform in the communications.” Or rather, a hub of digital content, exactly in line with the movements of (some) competitors. On every line, which combines applications, games, shopping and chatting in a single tap. It chatteremo beautiful.
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