Viber, an Israeli firm which lets users send free text messages, photo messages and video messages, has released a new feature that allows people to see what celebrities are talking about.
Called Public Chats, the company describes it as a new way to get behind the scenes with music, film, fashion, sports or whatever else you’re into.
Will you offer us a hand? Every gift, regardless of size, fuels our future.
Your critical contribution enables us to maintain our independence from shareholders or wealthy owners, allowing us to keep up reporting without bias. It means we can continue to make Jewish Business News available to everyone.
You can support us for as little as $1 via PayPal at [email protected].
Thank you.
No this is not a new service for spying on people nor does it let you hack into celebrities private accounts. It just lets Viber users follow their favorite stars Tweets and other public groups more easily.
“Don’t miss out on the latest gossip and get behind-the-scenes vibes with the world’s most popular celebrities, ” the website boasts.
Viber CEO Talmon Marco says Public Chats “give you that fly-on-the-wall experience as you watch other people that you care about as they have conversations. We don’t necessarily envision making money directly out of public chats, ” he says. “But this is something for our users to do and at the same time, we think it will bring additional users and show them what Viber can be used for.”
As far as whether or not any celebrities were paid to offer to connect to Public Chats, Marco told Tech Crunch, “We spoke with a bunch of people and some offered to participate. Generally we are looking for those who can create interesting chats — not just celebs but others like taxi drivers or bloggers, people whose conversations we feel would be interesting.”
Founded in 2010, Viber was acquired by the Japanese firm Rakuten for $900 million back in February.
