'Viber no-brainer compared to Skype'

Instant messaging application Viber on Tuesday took on popular internet calling application Skype with Viber Out, which offers calling over Internet at much cheaper rates.

“Not only is our service cheaper than that of Skype but Viber is available across platforms like mobile and desktop.

“If a person is using the service on the desktop, one can pull all the contacts on the mobile from the desktop and we also offer a caller ID option.

“All these reasons make the choice of Viber over Skype a no-brainer,” Talmon Marco, chief executive officer and co-founder, told Business Standard.

Calls from Viber to other users of the app are already free.

The new service allows calls to even those outside the Viber network.

India, which Marco considers one of his biggest markets, is also getting the benefit of much cheaper rates.

While calls made through Skype cost 36.5 cents (Rs 22) for three minutes, those through Viber costs 7.5 cents (Rs 4.7) to a landline number, 387 per cent cheaper, Viber said.

Calls made to mobiles are 148 per cent cheaper, it added.

“A call to US from India would cost around Rs 1.6 a minute through Viber,” said Marco.

The American-Israeli entrepreneur said India already had 16

million Viber users.

He is not worried a large number of Indian users do not like to pay for such services.

“I think there are some users who will pay for our services, because it is the cheapest option for calling internationally,” said Marco.

Viber is already looking to add more features especially for Indians.

“The application is already available in Hindi. And, we are trying to localise even more by making it available in all Indian languages,” said Marco.

Marco said Viber offers are much better features than WhatsApp, another popular instant-messaging service.

“We have our application on the desktop as well. We also have stickers and doodles.

“There is also a unique captioning service that we offer, where one does not have to text after sending a picture. One can just describe it right on the picture,” he said.

Viber offers many more options than WhatsApp for group chatting.

“A user can keep away from group messages without muting it,” said Marco.

Though popular, lot of users complain group chats encroach on privacy.

Viber is hoping to correct this in group chats.

“Viber is more compelling than WhatsApp,” sums up Marco.