Tokyo – Rakuten Inc (4755:Tokyo), one of the world’s largest Internet services companies, announced on February 14 its acquisition of pioneering messaging and VoIP company, Viber. Rakuten will acquire Viber for a total consideration of US$900 million. The acquisition represents another bold step for Rakuten into the digital content space, following its acquisitions of Kobo, Wuaki.tv, and Viki. As people continue to shift from traditional content and communications platforms to … [Read more...] about Rakuten acquires Viber for $900 million
Viber
Vietnam government to “manage” chat apps
Reuters reports that the announcement was made by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, and that state media said the government might "ban" all free OTT services because of the harm done to network providers. The report added that the prime minister said the government would "build and promulgate the policies" to manage these apps, but that he did not explain clearly what the government plans to do. "We will lose 40-50% of our revenue if all of our 40 million customers use Viber instead of … [Read more...] about Vietnam government to “manage” chat apps
