Bot commercial model

As of 05.02.2024, our partners and business clients can apply to create chatbots on Rakuten Viber by reaching out directly to our team. Once the application is qualified, the business client can proceed to sign the contract and agree to the Terms & Conditions.

Applying to create and publish a chatbot on Rakuten Viber is easy. Here are two ways to apply for a chatbot:

1. The easiest and speediest option is to reach out to one of Rakuten Viber's verified official partners. Our trusted partners will not only help you apply for a chatbot but also offer their extensive expertise, counsel, and management.
2. Alternatively, you can also reach out directly to our team here. We will manually review the application and advise you on next steps, as well as answer any questions about other Rakuten Viber for Business solutions that might fit your goals and work well with your chatbot.

Messages exchanged in a chatbot fall into three categories:

• Welcome message: chatbots can send one welcome message to a user as soon as they open the conversation before the user subscribes. Welcome messages are not billed. Use it to introduce the chatbot, familiarize the user with your chatbot's UI and features, give information, and encourage the user to subscribe to the chatbot.
• Chatbot session message: message exchanged between the chatbot and its subscribers during a conversational session. Session messages are unlimited.
• Chatbot-initiated message: a paid outbound message sent by the chatbot owner to its subscriber.
  NOTE: the welcome message type is not counted as a chatbot-initiated message.

A session is a 24-hour time window activated when the chatbot subscriber sends a message to the chatbot. A session is also activated when the chatbot subscriber responds to a chatbot-initiated message. After 24 hours, the session terminates automatically. The next session will be activated as soon as the chatbot subscriber sends a new message.

Rakuten Viber does not bill chatbot owners for messages exchanged between the chatbot and its subscribers during a session.

A message sent by a chatbot to its subscriber is categorized as a chatbot-initiated message when there is no active session between the chatbot and its subscriber. Chatbot-initiated messages are a paid feature that helps chatbots engage their subscribers proactively. Note that if the subscriber responds to a chatbot-initiated message, it will activate a session, and subsequently, all messages exchanged during that session (24 hours) will not be billed.

To initiate a conversation with its subscribers, a chatbot can send a full range of message types and formats: text, pictures, videos, files, carousels, stickers, call-to-action buttons, location, and contact cards.

To send chatbot-initiated messages, chatbot owners must agree to Rakuten Viber's Chatbot Commercial Terms.

Every calendar* month, chatbot owners will be charged on a cost-per-delivered basis for every chatbot-initiated message delivered (in accordance with the rates below), excluding the welcome message.

*A calendar month is measured according to UTC (GMT+0) timezone.

Each calendar month, chatbot owners are charged a maintenance fee of EUR 100 per bot (or as otherwise may be agreed in writing via a signed addendum), as well as the bill for the delivered chatbot-initiated messages.

Unlimited session messages are included with the monthly maintenance fee.

Maintenance fee shall no longer be required as of the deactivation of a bot.

Each calendar month, chatbot owners are charged a maintenance fee of EUR 100 for every new bot (or as otherwise may be agreed in writing via a signed addendum) and the bill for chatbot-initiated messages.

To explore our chatbot-initiated message rates, please refer to our detailed rate card here.

To help you better understand the Rakuten Viber Chatbot and our new commercial terms, we’ve answered some commonly asked questions here.