More Than One Billion Viber Installations In Greece In 2021
In Greece, Viber is found on over 90% of smartphones, which makes it the No. 1 chat application in the country, according to data released yesterday by Rakuten Viber, a messaging and voice communication company
In its most recent data presentation, for the 2021 review, Viber reveals a 20% increase in the number of calls and 15% in the number of messages sent last year. This means that the public in Greece made 1 billion calls, exceeded 90 million hours in conversations and sent 700 messages per second in the last 12 months. The app’s users in Greece made more calls and sent the highest number of messages during popular holidays such as New Year’s and Valentine’s Day.
During the year, Viber celebrated its 11th birthday, reached the milestone of 1 billion installations on Android mobiles and launched augmented reality lenses in partnership with Snap Inc. The lenses were another hit for the company. Since their launch in the fall, 2 million images with Viber Lenses have been created by users in Greece. Created to make communication between users more enjoyable, Viber Lenses are also available to businesses and organizations depending on their marketing strategy.
As noted, lenses are a welcome addition to the app’s existing sticker collections that allow users to express themselves creatively and give companies a non-intrusive way to increase brand awareness and acquire customers. According to Viber, 800 million stickers added salt and pepper to users’ conversations in Greece in 2021.
In the previous year, Viber presented important, strategic partnerships that brought useful solutions to users in Greece.
ParkAround’s chatbot allows its subscribers to easily book parking spaces near airports and ports in the country’s two largest cities – Athens and Thessaloniki – and already has 50,000 users. The partnership with Smile of the Child brought a chatbot to Viber, through which users receive real-time alerts about missing people, report cases of violence and voluntarily or financially support the NGO. It has already reached over 100,000 members. The Greek government also has its own Viber channel where it announces important information on a daily basis. During last year it exceeded 1 million members.
In addition to its entrepreneurial achievements in 2021, the app also stood up for women in technology by launching a competition for female entrepreneurship. The company announced full financial support, as well as developer support, to digitize the winners’ Viber businesses. The solutions will be presented in the first months of 2022.
In the same way that usage among users is growing, businesses are also showing more interest in Viber’s business solutions to enhance the level of communication they can achieve with their customers on their favorite messaging app.
In 2021 in Greece, Viber recorded:-35% increase in the number of chatbots and 18% increase in their use. -79% increase in number of new business accounts (55% increase worldwide) -Overall 82% increase in Viber business messages delivered: the number of chat messages (customer support) increased by 36%, promotional messages (offers, discounts, etc.) by 30%, and transactional messages (order confirmations, tracking orders, appointment reminders, etc.) by an impressive 193%. In total, more than 8,500 businesses worldwide rely on Viber’s business solutions to communicate directly with their customers. Finally, companies can also use advertising solutions to become better known. Last year, the volume of ads impressions on Viber in Greece increased by 16% (and 70% worldwide), showing the significant interest of advertisers. Among the top performing sectors were: health and wellness with a 90% increase, energy with 56% and transportation with 51%. The app also saw significant growth in new ad categories such as recruitment and local businesses, reflecting the impact of the pandemic on the job market.