Chat App Viber Introduces Games In An Initial 5 Countries, Plans Global Rollout In 2015


It’s been quite a year for Viber, and now the mobile messaging company is seeing out 2014 with arguably its most significant release to date: the launch of a social games platform.

Viber, which was bought by Japan’s Rakuten for $900 million back in February — right before Facebook acquired WhatsApp — is taking a leaf from the Asian messaging app playbook with the launch of an initial three games. It isn’t a global launch however. These titles will be available for iOS and Android users in five markets initially — Belarus, Malaysia, Israel, Singapore and the Ukraine — with the company planning to roll them out to all Viber users worldwide in January 2015.

Earlier this year, founder Talmon Marco said Viber would introduce games before the end of 2014, and the company has just about stuck to that timeline. Just about.

Like other chat apps, linking a Viber account to the games platform will allow users to tap their social graph to do things like send gifts to friends, check social-powered game leaderboards, challenge friends, battle friends, share their scores and more. Viber will also make money from any virtual items bought inside the games, minus the cut that Apple and Google take on Android and iOS respectively.

Viber’s initial game developer partners are Storm8 — which created Viber Candy Mania and Viber Pop, pictured below — and Playtika, which developed the Wild Luck Casino title. The characters in the games are the same as those featured in Viber’s sticker collections, which is a nice touch.

Viber will look to the examples of Korea’s Kakao Talk, which became profitable last year thanks to its games platform, and Japan’s Line, which clocked $192 million in Q3 2014 revenue thanks to games and has seen over 300 million cumulative downloads from its two-year-old gaming platform.

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