Viber targets 30 mn users in India by year-end

The mobile application provider has 17 mn users in Indiam 300 mn worldwide

Considering India as one of its priority markets, Viber, provider of a mobile application that allows free voice calls and text messaging - is aiming to increase its user base here to 30 million by December.

The company which entered India last November has 17 million users. Globally, it has over 300 million users in 193 countries.

"India is among our priority markets and we are very confident that we will hit the 30 million mark by the end of this year," Viber India Country Head Anubhav Nayyar told PTI.

He said there is immense opportunity for the company as smartphone sales are growing fast in India.

Asked about the competition from other players in the instant messaging space, Nayyar said the company has seen tremendous growth during the last 5-6 months because of its unique features like availability of the application across multiple platforms.

Viber is available across platforms such as Android, Windows, iOS, Blackberry, Linux and Symbian on mobile devices as well as desktop PCs.

The ViberOut, which is a paid feature, allows users to make low-cost calls to any phone around the world. However, if both users have Viber, then it's completely free.

Asked about the revenue model, Nayyar said revenue comes from its ViberOut feature and stickers. He, however, said the company will never put advertisements on the application to generate revenues.

"Viber is free and does not have advertisements," he said.