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the communications were not end-to-end encrypted), users could not verify contacts' identities, past messages were not secure if the encryption keys were stolen (i.e. Viber received a point for encryption during transit but lost points because communications were not encrypted with keys that the provider did not have access to (i.e. On 4 November 2014, Viber scored 1 out of 7 points on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's "Secure Messaging Scorecard". In the wake of the July–August 2020 Belarusian election protests and ensuing crackdown, the company closed its office in Minsk. In 2020, Rakuten Viber and the World Health Organization (the WHO) engaged in a commercial transaction for a chatbot to inform users of issues such as women's health.
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The chatbot is still active as of June 2022, with over 1.4 million subscribers. Īfter first using RV to spread its message in June 2020, the International Federation of the Red Cross launched an official chatbot and Community on the messaging app to combat the spread of false information, which they termed an infodemic, about COVID-19. In 2017, Rakuten Viber and the World Wildlife Fund engaged in a commercial transaction aimed at raising awareness and protecting wildlife. Its legal name remains Viber Media, S.à r.l. In July 2017 the corporate name of Viber Media was changed to Rakuten Viber and a new wordmark logo was introduced. ĭjamel Agaoua became Viber Media CEO in February 2017, replacing co-founder Marco who left in 2015. At that sale price, the founders each realized over 30 times return on their investments. The sale of Viber earned the Shabtai family ( Benny, his brother Gilad, and Gilad's son Ofer) some $500 million from their 55.2% stake in the company. On 13 February 2014, Rakuten announced they had acquired Viber Media for $900 million. According to Viber, no sensitive user information was accessed. On 24 July 2013, Viber's support system was defaced by the Syrian Electronic Army. They invested $20 million in the company, which had 120 employees as of May 2013. The company was originally funded by individual investors, described by Marco as "friends and family". It began doing so in 2013, via user payments for Viber Out voice calling and the Viber graphical messaging "sticker market". In its first two years of availability, Viber did not generate revenues. Marco commented that Viber allows instant calling and synchronization with contacts because the ID is the user's cell number. Sani Maroli and Ofer Smocha soon joined the company as well. The company was run from Israel, and was registered in Cyprus. Marco and Magazinnik are also co-founders of the P2P media and file-sharing client iMesh. Viber Media was founded in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 2010 by Talmon Marco and Igor Magazinnik, who are friends from the Israel Defense Forces where they were chief information officers. It is based in Cyprus with offices in London, Manila, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Singapore, and Tokyo.
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Since 2017, its corporate name has been Rakuten Viber.
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The software was developed in 2010 by Cyprus-based Viber Media, which was bought by Rakuten in 2014. As of 2018, there are over a billion registered users on the network. In addition to instant messaging it allows users to exchange media such as images and video records, and also provides a paid international landline and mobile calling service called Viber Out. Users are registered and identified through a cellular telephone number, although the service is accessible on desktop platforms without needing mobile connectivity. Viber, or Rakuten Viber, is a cross-platform voice over IP (VoIP) and instant messaging (IM) software application owned by Japanese multinational company Rakuten, provided as freeware for the Google Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS and Linux platforms.
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