Will Viber’s Partnership with Globe Telco Increase its Philippine Presence?

Chat apps are now the big tech trend in Asia. We saw this developing last year, and userbases are increasing even more this year. This is no different in the Philippines, and now one of the early players in messaging apps, Viber, is partnering with the Philippines’s Globe Telecom to add an interesting bundle to its services.

The telco’s bundled prepaid service GoUNLI25, which lets users enjoy unlimited texts and calls to Globe, will now also allow subscribers to have free unlimited Viber chat services. In other words, GoUNLI25 users can chat on Viber as much as they’d like without having to worry about data charges. But there are some limits: the add-on service costs PHP 25 (0.57 ¢) and only provides unlimited Viber chatting for 24 hours.

Competition in the Philippine messaging apps scene is getting tough with WeChat and Line also pushing their presence in the country. According to iOS App Stats, WeChat now leads in number of downloads in the Philippines under the social networking category, and Viber has been pushed back to the fourth spot.

Viber CEO Talmon Marco says the initiative with Globe is part of its endeavor to grow its footprint in the Philippines.

Likewise, Globe is known for leveraging personalized postpaid and prepaid plans for its customers. And Peter Bithos, Globe’s senior advisor for consumer business says, that this move is also part of their strategy “to explore new revenue streams beyond call and text services, becoming a full-fledged digital brand.”

Whether Viber regains its lead with its new initiative in the Philippines will be something we can find out in the coming months.

(Editing by: C. Custer and Anh-Minh Do)