Rakuten Viber reveals new superapp features for  trusted brand-user communication in Hungary

Rakuten Viber, the leading global communications platform that securely connects hundreds of millions of users with thousands of brands worldwide, presented new features of the app, enabling efficient and trusted interactions between Hungarian businesses and consumers. 

At an event held in Budapest, Rakuten Viber looked at how trust impacts reputation and revenue for businesses. This is particularly important for the diverse business community in Hungary where the rules of communication are changing, with users relying on fewer mobile apps but are also expecting personalised offers while their privacy is upheld.  

Expanding features for businesses 

To address this changing landscape, Rakuten Viber is a superapp that matches expectations of Hungarian consumers with moderated public channels, manually verified official business accounts and high-level encryption and processes that are certified and compliant with international and local data privacy laws. 

The company enables businesses to reach their customers safely and efficiently through dedicated Viber for Business solutions, which are gaining more interest among Hungarian brands. In a year, average monthly impressions for Viber Ads grew by 15% as brands enhance their visibility and attract new users. The number of business messages, used to build 1-to-1 communication, increased by 19%. Among these, promotional notifications like special offers grew by 27%, conversational messages used for around-sales support grew by 88%, and transactional messages, such as order confirmations and important information like account balances, grew by 47%, reflecting greater trust from brands.

The app is expanding its suite for businesses, helping them further build brand awareness, customer engagement and trust. Amongst the updates are click-to-message solutions for simple conversions and branded Viber Gems - animations that appear in response to keywords in user chats, which businesses in Hungary can now brand for special occasions.

Rakuten Viber also launched Secure Rich Business Messaging solutions for one-to-one communication with customers, which provide a high level of safety for user and transaction verification. In addition, Viber now offers Business Calls in Hungary, which serve as an ‘in-app business call center’ customers can reach from anywhere, for free. This feature has been developed to cater for the 91% of consumers who prefer brands that offer them the option to call or message. 

Peace of mind for users and brands

While these features enable businesses to optimise customer experience, trust is often eroded by identity theft and cyberattacks. Hungary has the fourth highest exposure rate to cybercrime in Central and Eastern Europe, according to a report from 2022. With Hungary also lagging behind other European countries in terms of cyber awareness, businesses in the country are particularly vulnerable to cybercrime.

To support them, Rakuten Viber is built with security at its core. Rated among the top three messaging and calling apps for security by the European consumer organization Stiftung Warentest, Rakuten Viber uses encryption in transit for brand-user communication. The app also offers end-to-end encryption for its core private and group chats as well as private calls. Private messages are never stored on Viber’s servers, and connections are secure and HTTPS-only. These high security standards give Hungarian users and brands a unique opportunity to communicate with each other in a safe space. 

“Hungary has been one of our key markets for many years, and we are excited to expand our offering in the country”, said Noa Bar Shay, Senior Director, Partnerships & Sales at Rakuten Viber. “Businesses are under a lot of pressure to build, retain and grow a loyal customer base. With budget restraints, an easy-to-use and cost-efficient platform is crucial for them to communicate safely with their customers. We will give them a boost with safe and efficient tools that help them increase customer satisfaction and retention.”

The new features form part of Rakuten Viber’s superapp strategy in Hungary to build a trusted ecosystem for businesses of all sizes, from MSMEs to large corporations with international operations.