The audience of Viber in Russia increased by 43%

In 2016, the number of registered users of Viber in Russia increased by 43%. About it reports RBC with reference to the statement of the representative of the service. Today the audience of the messenger is 76 million people, to the end of the year this figure may increase to 78 million

Audience Viber grew up in the neighboring Ukraine and Belarus. Growth in the three countries amounted to 45.7%. The company did not disclose how many users are active. As said the representative of Viber, about half of registered users are "active monthly".

However, the research organization Mediascope (formerly TNS Russia) has estimated that in October Viber at least once a month used 8,08 million people (data for audience 12-64, a city with a population of over 700 thousand people). During the year this indicator increased by 12.6%. The leader of an active audience is an WhatsApp from 9.8 million users.

Viber, the growth rate is explained by the level of penetration of smartphones and expansion of functionality of the application itself. Audience attract new options: deleted messages and hidden chats, end-to-end encryption of messages and calls in group and private chats. Most of these features were launched in the first half of 2016.

In July 2016, the company announced that the number of calls to mobile and landline phones using the Internet service Viber for the year increased by 25%. Revenues from such calls bring nearly half of the company's revenues in Russia. The rest comes from the sale of stickers (sets of themed images for use in correspondence), SMS, games, etc. the Size of its revenues the company did not disclose.