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Viber Business Model - How do Viber Make Money

Viber is a free application available for almost all the platforms. This app has been downloaded for more than 200 millions times and is being called Skype Killer. Viber now offers its free application for iOS Platform (iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch), Android Mobiles, Windows based mobiles, Blackberry OS, Nokia Symbian, Bada mobiles and now it offers PC app as well. Viber offers free calls and multi media messages between two viber users (doesn't matter on which device you are using this app).

Not only is the Viber application free, but it does not even charges for calls and text messages. Infact its PC application offers video calls which are also free. That's not all Viber does not even show any ads on its app, so no advertisement revenue. The question is if everything is free and not even powered by ads so how does it make money, what exactly is Viber's business model. Before we go into the details about its business model, lets see what is it costs (expenses).
  • Calls are made using internet connection (does not require any kind of hardware infrastructure), so these can be free. 
  • Viber is simply a software developed by a team - this effectively means team salary cost, research cost, marketing cost and many other expenses. This may seem less but trust me it is a good amount of money. Effectively its like running a product based software company.
Read - Viber Problems and their solution

As found on the forbes website -
So far, his company has no venture capital investors and has yet to book any revenue. In fact its founder and CEO, Talmon Marco, said friends and family of the Cyprus-based company’s founders had helped put $20 million into the company. “It’s not a cheap operation,” he said, adding that Viber employs 120 people, the workforce being divided between Israel and Minsk, Belarus.

“We are going to generate revenue later this year, through value-added services,”  Marco said. Viber will not charge a fee to download its application or for basic services, and Marco says there are no plans to introduce ads. Instead he is opting for a freemium-model to make cash, with extra services such as “premium stickers” for messaging.
So though Viber is not making money and it is definitely a great application (and a good business model) with potential to make huge amount of money. Infact if you compare this with Facebook (which also started with offering social profile and connecting with friends), Viber looks pretty similar. Its all upto Viber to decide what their next step would be to generate money.

Viber Business Model - Connect Freely

My List of Ideas - Viber Model to Make Money

  1. Someday it Viber may decide to charge money for application. If it starts asking for $1 per annum (which is pretty cheap), it would start making 200 million USD per year (growing)
  2. Launching premium services just like Skype
    1. Viber Out - Make calls and sms to normal mobile (non viber users) at cheap international rates
    2. Viber Video Conference - video chat with multiple people at low cost
    3. Viber for Business - Start charging business users with more features like desktop sharing, conference calls, call recording etc..
  3. Advertisement on the viber app - this should generate huge amount of money
  4. Integration with third party software like Facebook and Twitter - Ask them for money or display ads on these third party websites
  5. Online calls from Viber - PC to Phone without software download. This will generate huge traffic on viber website, just display ads on website
  6. Launch its own social media website just like Facebook
  7. Sell Viber to big players like Google, Microsoft or even Facebook or may be a mobile company like Samsung
  8. Viber pre installed on mobiles like Samsung - Ask Samsung for money
  9. Viber could tie up with mobile career like Virgin Mobiles, ATnT or any other depending upon the country (may be Airtel in India) - offer data plans and free calls plan. They can share the generated revenue.
 

Download Viber on Kindle Fire for Free International Calls

Viber is one of the best mobile voip applications. The best part about Viber is that it is a multi platform application and is available for almost all the devices. Viber application is now available for Android Mobiles, iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobiles, Nokia Symbian, Bada and recently it launched its Computer application as well. One of my friend was planning to buy Kindle Fire and asked me whether he will be able to use Viber on it.

Viber application is so popular that when buying any gadget (mobile or tablet), people do consider the factor that Viber app should work on it. This application is now being used by millions of people all over the globe, simply because it allows free phone calls between two viber users. Not only free calls, Viber users can also text each other for free. It can be treated as a replacement for Whatsapp Messenger as well.

What's Special in Viber

  • Viber allows free calls between two users. So if you are using Viber on your mobile and your friend is also using Viber on his mobile, then you two can talk to each other for free.
  • Requirements: Viber application installed on your mobile or computer, Internet Connection on your device (mobile, PC or tablet)
  • Viber also allows free text between users. Not only text it also allows media sharing (like pictures, videos between users)
  • On its PC version it allows video calling facility as well.

Viber on Kindle Fire From App Store

Kindle Fire is based on Android and Viber application is available for android devices. So if you can access Google Play (or Amazon Store for Kindle Fire Apps), there you should be able to see Viber app. As seen in the image below, you can get the Viber app from Kindle Fire app store. It was last updated in Jan, 2013. Good thing is it is Free!
Viber Kindle Fire App

Alternate way to get Viber on Kindle Fire

If you can't download Viber for Android from Google Play/Amazon Store. Just follow this tutorial below.

Download latest Viber version from here: [http://download.viber.com/viber.apk]

How to install: 
1. In your device menu, select Settings then Applications then Unknown sources (should be activated)
2. With your device, just click on the link and download the apk file, then install.
3. You may also download the file into your computer and use your device's pc interface to install it (Make sure that you have done #1).
4. Or you may simply download the file into your computer, and then attach it to an email and email it to your phone, or bluetooth it to your phone. Once received in your phone, just click on the file and install it (Make sure that you have done #1).

Viber works perfectly well on Kindle Fire. You should be able to make calls (quality is good) and send messages to your friend. Please share your experience of using Viber on your tablet. If you are facing any issues, then read this post on Viber problems.
 

Status of Tango App for Nokia Symbian Mobiles Phones

You can't expect everyone to instantly switch to Android or Windows platform. There are still quite a good number of Nokia Symbian mobile users. Infact the Nokia mobile boasting about Pureview 41Mp camera is itself based on Symbian Belle (its a great phone, only concern is its Symbian). And many of these Nokia phone's allow video calling facility (they are having a secondary front facing camera). So do these Nokia mobile users (even after having front camera camera and high speed internet on mobile), really enjoy video calling on their phones.

Apart from above two said items, what you additionally require in your mobile is Video Calling application. One of the very famous and popular app (atleast for iOS, Android and Windows) video calling app is Tango. It is a free to download application which allows video calling between various platforms. If you are using Tango on your PC, you can call your friend who is using Tango on his Android Mobile.

Currently Tango does not have any application for Nokia Symbian Mobile Phones. But the thing is what is its status, when is Tango coming out with its Nokia application. With Nokia already focusing on its Windows based Lumia mobile phone range, it is really difficult that anyone else will focus on it.

From the day Tango was launched people are requesting this application for Symbian phones (specifically - N97, N8, 5800, N97 Mini, E72, E5, X7, N86, N73, C3, 5250 etc..). We have tried to capture the status (replies from Tango official's) regarding Tango Nokia app.

Tango App for Nokia Symbian Mobiles

Status of Tango for Nokia Symbian


April 06, 2013
Hey Everyone,
Regret to inform you that after further discussions we have decided not to develop a Nokia version at this time.
Our plans may change in the future, but at this time we don't have any current plans to support Nokia/Symbian.
We appreciate your posts and enthusiasm about this topic. I hope we can support this in the future.
Thanks!
From the latest updates (whatever the reasons are), it seems that Tango is not coming with any application support for Symbian mobile phones. I guess at least they should have cared to inform the people why they have decided to take this decision. Moreover if there are any plans to support this in future (I mean people are eagerly waiting).

What can Nokia Symbian Users do now

  • Use Tango on your computer to make video calls
  • Buy Android or Windows Based mobile
  • Use other video calling softwares which are available for Nokia Phones (I guess Fring is available)
  • Keep making request to Tango for launching application for Nokia, they may change their mind.
Anyhow we will try to find answers for why Tango dropping idea of launching app for Nokia. Infact we will try to get some Tango official to answer your concerns.
 

Viber Desktop/Laptop Application For Windows and Mac PC

Viber one of the highly downloaded smartphone application has made quite a good mark in the mobile industry. As of now Viber's customer base include more than 200 million users, using the app for text and free voice calling. Up till now Viber was offering its application for iOS Platform (iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch), Android Mobiles, Windows based mobiles, Blackberry OS, Nokia Symbian and Bada mobiles as well. Viber was not offering any app for PC user's.

The only working way of using Viber on computer was to install android emulator (be it Bluestacks or Youwave player) and use the android viber apk on this emulator. Though the method quite worked (thanks to our step by step tutorial), however many people still faced issues using Viber on computer.

The good news is Viber has officially now entered the desktop space as well. Viber has launched its official application for windows and Mac PC. That means all the 200 million users have access to their viber contacts from both mobile and desktop. Not only the viber desktop provides free text and voice calling, but it also offers video calling to other Viber desktop users. This video calling is currently in beta version and is only available from computer to computer.

What's Special in Viber Desktop/Laptop App for Windows and Mac

  • Send Free Message: Works from Viber on desktop to your viber contact on any device (PC to Mobile).
  • Free Voice Calls: It again works from Viber on desktop to viber on mobile as well. 
  • Video Calling: Viber on desktop to Viber on desktop
  • Viber syncs your contacts, messages and call history with your mobile device, so you can start the conversation on the Viber mobile application and continue from the comfort of your PC.  
  • Group conversations
  • No registration, passwords or invitations required
  • Transfer ongoing calls between devices 

Download Viber Application for Windows/Mac

First thing first in order to get started and use this cool app on your computer, you need to download this application.

Viber for Windows PC: Download Link
Viber for Mac PC: Download Link

Simply download the app from the above links and install the application on your computer. Follow the tutorial below to get started and make calls using this viber app.


Viber Desktop Application for Windows/Mac


Get Started : Viber on Desktop

To start, you must be a mobile user of Viber, so if you don’t have a number that’s already associated with the service, the desktop app will ask you to download the mobile application. From there, you simply input your number into the desktop app, enter a pin which is sent to your mobile device, and you instantly have access to all the contacts you know on Viber.
  1. Once you install the app, it will ask you whether you have Viber on your mobile phone or not. If you have then click on yes and if not then click on no.
  2. If you already have Viber on your mobile (registered with Viber), then you will get a confirmation message on your mobile phone. You will need to connect your mobile phone with wifi or 3g (internet). Please open the viber app on your mobile - you will see a four digit code. Enter this code in the PC application and that's it. 
  3. If you are not yet using Viber on your mobile phone and clicked no, then you will be asked to install Viber on your mobile. If you do not have a smartphone, what next ?
  4. If you do not have a smartphone, then you will have to again make use of our old tutorial for using Viber on PC (android emulator). Follow that tutorial and fake as if you are using Viber on android mobile. Once this is done, you can again use the Viber official app on PC.
Incase of any issues or doubts, just let us know in the comment section. We will try to help you out. Good news for Blackberry users as well, Viber is also rolling out a new version of its BlackBerry app that ensures voice calling works with the desktop app, since BlackBerry encodes calls differently than other platforms.
 

Free Skype Credit Offer by CollegeBudgetDeals : Get 20$ on buying $10

Almost all of us know about Skype (the world's largest voip provider). It became more popular after Microsoft acquired it and large number of people use it now. It is being considered as market leader in video calling feature (most people use Skype just for free video calls - skype to skype is free). However that does not mean it is their only feature, infact many people use it for making international calls to mobile phones.

If you have a friend who is also using Skype (and is online on Skype) then you can call him or her for free, but it will cost you money when calling to non skype users. It does not matter whether you are using Skype on your mobile or playstation or your laptop, you can still use it for international calling. The calling rates offered by Skype are competitive (you can check its calling rates here).

Few days back we discussed about using skype voucher and coupon codes (and how to use them) for getting bonus credit or discounts when buying credit. In continuation to that we found another working code (or say a method) by which you will be able to get additional credit on your purchase.


CollegeBudgetDeals Offer Details

- You purchase credit worth $10
- You will get total of $20 credit ($10 extra free free free!)
- Special offer by CollegeBudget to save money. And for that you will require a CollegeBudgetDeals Account (free to signup)
- You also need to have a Skype account. Open one if you don't have Skype id.

How to Avail this Offer

- Login on collegeBudget
- Once logged in you will see a deal "Super Deal: $10 for $20 Worth of Skype Credit. Redeemable Instantly!"
- Buy this deal for $10.
- You will get a $20 e-gift code to spend at skype
- Go to skype.com/voucher and enter your code into to redeem your voucher.
- Once redeemed, you will get $20 credit that you can spend to call anywhere in the world.
- You can also refer to this tutorial on using skype voucher gift codes

There is no point on discussing whether you should try Skype and avail this offer. Skype is one of the best voip provider. Not only it offers good quality calls and different ways to make calls, it has excellent customer support and people just love it. And since with this offer the effective calling rate with this offers gets half, so it is a must try.
 
 
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