Rakuten Viber Case Study

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Rakuten Viber

viber acquired by Rakuten STRATEGY

GOBALA KRISHNAN SANJEEVI | INTERNATIONAL M&A STRATEGY | 20/06/2017

On February 13, 2014 , Rakuten announced That they have acquired Viber for $900million dollar which is one of the highest ever paid for a mobile application. After this acquisition Rakuten Chief Executive Officer Hiroshi Mikitani announced that Viber will be successfully integrated and will change it into a Mobile Commerce platform to sell its games, EBooks. Rakuten is aiming for other streams of revenue because Ecommerce entering into new level which needs an up gradation of technology. Rakuten is planning to use customer base in Viber to increase its revenue. Further, this shows that Rakuten acquiring strategy and integration strategy took it to next level.

Mobile Commerce Platform

        Mobile apps increases reach and engagement among multiple channels. When Shopping, Mobile apps can provide higher level personalization than E-commerce website. There is improved flexibility with mobile apps compared to online shopping. The major Five reason which helps in promoting M-Commerce:

1. Mobile Apps help you to be visible to your customers al the times

                    A mobile app today is your one stop solution to be face to face with your customers and are becoming more prevalent and powerful with each passing day. If your app is visible and accessible to customers, it soon becomes an integral part of their daily life cycle. Mobile Apps also benefits by providing the option of working offline. The customers can take a look at saved wish lists of products, and then go online to make the purchases. In adding to this considerable amount of people are buying from mobile and it is going to increase in coming years.

1. Built in features in the phone act as a leverage for the ecommerce apps

Inbuilt features like location tracker, camera, microphone and others helps the ecommerce apps to keep track of customer’s action. For example an app of Repose utilizes the camera feature to the best, it lets the customers click their sulfide and post it in the app which helps the other shoppers to make an informed decision. Such features act beneficial to both the customers as well as the ecommerce business.

1. Enhanced Usability

Mobile Apps needs to be downloaded only once and then one can start using them, so there is the potential for improved interactivity and design because your initial download doesn’t have to load in 3 seconds like a webpage. This allows business to have features such as high definition visuals, animations and complex interactions. Also mobile apps can give enhanced user experience and usability with exclusive functionality. This generally means that ecommerce apps have great navigation because you're not constrained by quick page load times and can perfect innovative and time-saving features. Also the design modification brings increase in engagement from the consumers.

1. Greater insights in customer preferences and buying habits

Mobile App helps to attract loyal, repeat visitors who make multiple purchases as opposed to visitors who are only one-time customers as an app provides a deeper level of engagement with your brand than a website. If they are visiting multiple times, then an app could really save them time with your full brand experience only one click away. Also apps limit browsing capabilities for products in other places which in some way helps the apps to get the undivided attention of the consumers and give them suggestions on their buying spree.

1. Best medium in providing value to the customers

Apps have challenged the traditional methods of shopping and are helping the businesses to stand out from the competition. It is a revelation of the forward thinking era and there is nothing to unlike about it. The customer can get solution instantly through app.

About Viber

        Viber Media is a Las Vegas and Cyprus-registered company with its development centers in Belarus and Israel. The company was founded by Marco and Magazinnik, who are friends from the Israel Defense forces in 2010. The company is run from Israel, with much of its development outsourced to Belarus in order to lower labor-costs. The company after launching Viber it has achieved a customer base of 300 million user. This is quick and fast growth of Viber. The competition in the messaging platform is high, it is ranked in top 10 messaging platform application (See Exhibit 1). It has most of users is from Middle East and Some in USA, Australia and Europe. Its usage in Asia is less and not popular in Asia market. The company is developing more attractive features to attract users from Asia market.

About Rakuten

           Rakuten is one of the top Ecommerce and Internet Company in Tokyo, Japan. Its business model is B2B2C.  Nearly 1/3rd of all B2C Ecommerce in japan is through Rakuten (See Exhibit 2). The Company Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Rakuten is moving Rakuten into a global market with his view to make it No1 in world. The company first started its global expansion in 2005.The timeline chart in Exhibit 2 shows its growth.  In 2010, Rakuten CEO planed a Strategic change in his company to change its official language into English which is most effective decision taken by a top leader. The Rakuten most of employee opposed its Englishnisation but CEO never changed his mind and implemented it mandatory for employee to learn English. This Strategic move gave rakuten a new way to increase its revenue. After introducing Englishnisation it started acquiring many company around to place its path in all country, see exhibit 3. Most important acquisition in its list is acquiring Viber. Rakuten having a diversified business platform. It is having online retail, Banking/Finance, Portal and media, Travel, Securities, professional sports and Entertainment. Rakuten having a unique and Differentiated EC model (See Exhibit 3).

  Rakuten Timeline chart[pic 4]

RAKUTEN ASIA FOOT PRINT

        Rakuten currently working in 5 countries and its operation is showing high growth. The most of developing countries are focused by Rakuten (See Exhibit 4).Rakuten have plan in expanding it foot print in Philippines, India, Vietnam and Australia. In these countries rakuten have opened research Centre to drive plan to open its base. Currently the target markets are big and Rakuten planning for slow moving into these markets.

STRATEGY IN ASIA