Messaging: Mobile's Killer App. Before the Internet, the nodes of communication were houses, and the killer app was the telephone.
Presuming both you and I were in our respective houses, I could dial a number, and we could talk. It was marvelous, and in retrospect, primitive; real-time is much less interesting, and much more limiting, when it’s the only means of communication. In the late 1970s, the computer came along, and while it made us incredibly more efficient, it didn’t truly alter the definition of communication.
That took the world wide web, and its killer app: the browser. Now the nodes of communication were computers, and while real-time was still a possibility, it was passive communication that defined the web. Seven years ago, the computer became pocketable, but the original use cases were about making the passive presentation of information accessible not just at a time convenient to the viewer, but also at any place: the web was now everywhere.
All of these positive factors apply to messaging.
Japanese Internet Giant Rakuten Acquires Viber For $900M. Rakuten, one of Japan’s largest Internet companies, has announced that it will acquire Cyprus-based messaging platform and app maker Viber for $900 million.
The deal is the latest and largest in an aggressive acquisition spree by Rakuten as it seeks to “become the world’s No. 1 Internet services company,” it said, and marks its entry into the global messaging market. Viber can now potentially add Rakuten Group’s approximately 225 million members to its existing user base of 300 million registered users. The Rakuten-Viber pairing may pose a significant new challenge to Line, which announced that had 300 million registered users back in November 2013 and is aiming for the 500 million milestone in 2014.
Like Line, Viber users can also purchase and send stickers to one another, and it recently added Viber Out, which enables free calls to mobile and landline numbers. In a statement, Mikitani said: I am tremendously excited to welcome Viber to the Rakuten family. How can a mobile messaging service be worth $28 billion? Yesterday there were reports that Line, a messaging company that has gained strong traction in Japan and other parts of Asia, is planning an IPO at a rumored valuation of $28 billion.
That figure certainly surprised a lot of people, in particular us at TNW who believe it to be somewhat inflated, but it isn’t as crazy as you might think. First, here are some core facts about Line and its two-year-old business: Most of the surprise around Line’s valuation is because it is ‘just a messaging company.’ Well, that’s not exactly true. While rival services like WhatsApp are designed to replace or enhance SMS, Line’s ambition runs a lot deeper. But there’s more — Line is really a content and communications platform on mobile. Already it acts as a network for distributing games, digital content and there are plans to introduce e-commerce, music and perhaps other services in the future.
While that thought percolates, enjoy this Line and Hello Kitty video from Japan.