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"Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten is moving into mobile messaging after it announced a $900 million deal to buy Viber, the Cyprus-based mobile voice and chat messaging company that claims 300 million registered users worldwide.\r\n\r\nA statement from Rakuten explains that Viber &amp;quot;perfectly complements&amp;quot; its digital strategy, which has seen the Japanese firm buy up a range of companies -- including tablet maker Kobo and global video site Viki.\r\n\r\n&amp;quot;As Rakuten aims to become the world\u2019s number one Internet\u00A0services company, this acquisition will enable Rakuten to penetrate new markets with multiple\u00A0digital content offerings, in combination with its e-commerce and financial services platforms,&amp;quot; the company says.\r\n\r\nRakuten has firm grip on the e-commerce space in Japan, where it offers a range of marketplaces for all manner of goods, and it has branched out into banking and financial services, however it is still to replicate its dominance overseas.\r\n\r\nThe deal for Viber is interesting because -- particularly in Asia -- messaging apps have become platforms for delivering a range of services, including Rakuten's specialty: e-commerce. There is also potential for Viber to be used to deliver a range of other entertainment services -- such as programming on Viki -- and we might see it pre-loaded to Kobo devices.\r\n\r\nIrrespective of anything else, the deal illustrates Rakuten's desire to break out internationally, and the value of messaging services as strategic platforms.\r\n\r\nHiroshi Mikitani, Rakuten Chairman and CEO, said in a statement:\r\nI am tremendously excited to welcome Viber to the Rakuten family. Viber delivers the most\u00A0consistently high quality and convenient messaging and VoIP experience available. Additionally,\u00A0Viber has introduced a great sticker market and has tremendous potential as a gaming platform.\r\n\r\nSimply put, Viber understands how people actually want to engage and have built the only\u00A0service that truly delivers on all fronts. This makes Viber the ideal total consumer engagement\u00A0platform for Rakuten as we seek to bring our deep understanding of the consumer to vast new\u00A0audiences through our dynamic ecosystem of Internet Services.\r\nThe news comes days after Viber was linked with a $400 million acquisition from an unnamed Asian company. Speaking at the time, Viber CEO\u00A0Talmon Marco denied knowledge of a deal.\u00A0Viber has not raised outside funding, so the deal is a huge win for its founders."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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