The app saves a copy of each user’s address book on Viber’s servers, unlike other services which just scan users’ contacts. That makes it a straight rival for Microsoft’s Skype, although the latter has the advantage of being bundled together with Windows 8.1.Ħ. There are dozens of popular mobile messaging services, but in May 2013, Viber went further – launching a desktop app for OS X and Windows operating systems. Sales were zero in 2012 and $1.5m in 2013, while net losses were $14.7m and $29.5m respectively.ĥ. Instead revenue-generating ideas include: selling downloadable stickers (a market also targeted by rival service Line), charging for calls to non-Viber numbers (with cheaper rates than Skype, it claims), and carrying part of international phone calls (currently being piloted). “It is not something we will do.” The strategy sets Viber apart from Skype, which under Microsoft has shown users display adverts during audio calls. “We do not believe in plastering our users with advertisements,” Mr Marco said in an interview in November. Revenues were just $1.5m last year – but there will be no advertising. That sets the service apart from other start-ups born in Israel, such as the mapping service Waze, which was bought by Google for about $1bn.Ĥ. Israel is famed for its high rates of venture capital investment, but Viber’s funding was “friends and family”, Mr Marco has said. “We maintain a research and development centre in Israel and that’s it.”ģ. Viber’s main offices are in Cyprus and Belarus, home of cheap developers, and Mr Marco has played down its links to his homeland. When that was consumed by lawsuits, he started Viber in 2010. Talmon Marco rose to chief information officer of the central command in the 1990s, before starting a file-sharing service, iMesh. Its founder was a key technologist in the Israeli army.
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