NEW YORK & LONDON, Nov. 25,
2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Akazoo S.A. (NASDAQ: SONG)
("SONG" or "Company"), a leading global
music streaming platform and technology company today announced a
global strategic partnership with Rakuten Viber, a global instant
messaging, chat and voiceover IP platform. The strategic
partnership will enable Viber users to access, listen to and share
music, playlists, stations and lyrics from Akazoo through the
popular messaging platform.
The innovative global partnership will enable direct access to
Akazoo's global music streaming service through
Viber's network of more than one billion users,
worldwide. Viber users will be able to search, access, play, and
jointly listen to music playlists, stations, curated by
Akazoo's proprietary and patented Sonic Artificial
intelligence (AI) engine, and participate in live listening rooms.
Access will be available "in-app," directly from within Viber
messenger and will be offered as an extension of the core chat
functionality.
The parties have agreed to launch the partnership in 17
countries and have agreed to an exclusive co-promotion of the
in-app music integration.
The goal of the collaboration is to inspire a joint music
listening experience in a social and real-time context. It also
paves the way for popular messaging platforms and social media to
offer music entertainment content to their users via Akazoo music
streaming for messaging and social media, a targeted offering
enabling direct in-app access to music entertainment content for
partners to drive increased engagement and revenue growth.
Akazoo's Founder and CEO, Apostolos N.
Zervos, said, "With audiences spending more time on
messaging apps and consuming music on their devices, enriching
messaging and social media with music is a natural fit. Granting
audiences, the ability to enjoy the same music at the same time
only advances and enriches both their musical as well as their
social experience. Rakuten Viber is an ideal partner for this
innovative offering and we look forward to a successful
partnership."
"Viber's mission has always been to bring fun and
valuable solutions to users in the palm of their hands. We are
loving the experience we've created with Akazoo to
give users a more natural and conversational way for them to
discover new music and enhance their experience directly within the
Viber app," said Cristina Constandache, Chief Revenue Officer
at Viber. "We are excited to roll out this initiative and partner
with Akazoo to offer engaging music entertainment to our users
across the world."
Akazoo S.A., SONG, currently operates in 25 countries, including
emerging markets that represent the music streaming
industry's fastest growing markets.
Akazoo's platform boasts patented Sonic AI music
recommendation and profiling technology, developed to support its
hyper-local strategy. In the past five years, SONG's
premium subscribers have grown from 1.1 million in 2014 to over 5.3
million and the platform has over 43 million total registered
users.
To learn more about Akazoo, visit www.akazoo.com. For more
information on Viber, visit www.viber.com.
About Akazoo
Founded in 2010, Akazoo is a global, on-demand music streaming
subscription company with a focus on emerging markets.
Akazoo's Premium service provides subscribers with
unlimited online and offline high-quality streaming access to a
catalog of over 45 million songs on a commercial-free basis.
Akazoo's free, ad-supported Radio service consists of
over 100,000 stations and exists as a separate application. With a
presence in 25 countries and growing, Akazoo's
platform includes 43 million registered users and 5.3 million
premium subscribers as of June 30,
2019. Akazoo directly licenses music from thousands of
labels and provides both online and offline listening platforms,
social media integration, and a patented, AI-driven sonic
recommendation engine. As consumers across the globe continue to
shift their media consumption to mobile devices, Akazoo is equipped
with a world-class mobile application and user experience which
works seamlessly across a multitude of mobile devices and provides
a high-quality user experience across a range of mobile networks
from 2g to 4g LTE and soon 5g.
About Rakuten Viber:
At Rakuten Viber, we connect people. No matter who they are, or
where they are from. Our global user base has access to a range of
features like one-on-one chats, video calls, group messaging, and
updates and discussions with their favorite brands and celebrities.
We ensure our users have a secure and free environment to share
their emotions.
Rakuten Viber is part of Rakuten Inc., a world leader in
e-commerce and financial services. It is the official communication
channel of FC Barcelona, and the official instant messaging and
calling app partner of the Golden State Warriors.
Join Viber today and enjoy the world's best
communication experience.
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SOURCE Akazoo S.A.