Viber investments
Rakuten’s profit dropped 39 % compared to last year, when it reached a 11.6 billion Japanese yen (84 million euro) profit, now only 7 billion yen (51 million euro).
Turnover rose 8.3 % to 138.3 billion yen (nearly 1 billion euro), a smaller growth than last year when growth reached 22.2 %.
Part of the reason for the lower profit numbers were investments in the expansion of its online services and to attract more online members for its digital platforms like Viber – an Israeli company it purchased in February for 670 million dollars. Viber’s number of users has grown considerably from the start of the year, from 408 to 608 million.
