Insider Spotlight
Viber Plus revenue in the Philippines surged 75.5 percent year-to-date, while paying subscribers increased 34.3 percent year-on-year. The country now ranks first globally in active paying subscribers and contributes the largest share of worldwide Viber Plus revenue.
The Philippine performance highlights Viber's ability to monetize its existing user base as the platform expands beyond free messaging into subscription-based services, dating and business solutions.
“What this tells us is Filipino users are not only highly engaged, they also see the value in the Viber experience to pay for enhanced features,” Viber senior director for Asia-Pacific David Tse said during the press briefing.
Dating adds another revenue engine
Viber Dating is emerging as another major growth driver, with year-to-date revenue increasing 95.6 percent and monthly active users jumping 96.9 percent year-on-year.
The Philippines accounts for 56 percent of all new Viber Dating profiles globally year-to-date, making it the company's leading market for dating adoption.
“Philippines is not only one of Viber's strongest growth countries, it's showing us how communication can really evolve from messaging to a richer experience to meaningful connection between people and businesses,” Tse added.
Business ecosystem expands
Viber is also strengthening its business-to-consumer ecosystem, with live business accounts increasing 20.5 percent year-on-year and meaningful business interactions surging 127.3 percent.
The Philippines accounts for 24 percent of Viber's global live business accounts, ranking second worldwide.
Viber expects Philippine monthly active users to grow 16.5 percent this year, while average daily time spent on the platform has risen 24 percent year-on-year, the highest among its 10 largest markets.
Building trust among travelers
The company is also pursuing a partnership with the Department of Tourism to make accredited local tourism operators discoverable through Viber Business accounts, enabling travelers to directly inquire about services.
"Our collaboration with the National Telecommunication Commission and the local telecommunication company to combat spam reflects a very important principle. As the ecosystem grows, trust, privacy and security must grow with it," Tse said.
AI safeguards strengthen user privacy
As Viber expands its digital ecosystem, the company is also introducing privacy safeguards for its OpenAI-powered features, emphasizing user control and data protection.
Viber said it does not retain data from AI requests, which are deleted after use, while user information is not used to train AI models. Users can choose whether to link their ChatGPT accounts to Viber and can disable AI-powered features through the app's settings.
These include AI-generated replies, chat summaries, unread message recaps, image remixing and message translation. The safeguards are designed to give users greater control over how they interact with AI while maintaining privacy and trust within the messaging platform. —Vanessa Hidalgo | Ed: Corrie S. Narisma
