Rakuten Viber, the global leader in private and secure management and voice communication, has published the results of its analysis of the use of Viber Lens since its launch in partnership with Snap in June 2021 and its several months of expansion in major markets. Since the first wave of launch, more than 7,3 million users have used Lens for media such as images, videos or GIFs, with more than 50 million images created in the app.
According to the data, in 2021 augmented reality using AR Lens was more often enjoyed by women, who make up 46% of Viber's monthly active users (MAU) and represent 56% of lens users. Women are also more likely than men to use and send media: 59% of Lenses women use media and 30% of them send media, while 55% of Lenses men use media and 27% of them send media.
Which lenses are among the most used? According to the data, the most popular lens was "Cartoon Face,” which uses big, glowing eyes and a long tongue across the photo. Fashion magazines have promoted red hair as the color trend for 2021, and this trend has also carried over to augmented reality filters, as "Red Head" - a lens that gives the user long red hair - was the second most popular lens on Viber. In third place was the "Halloween Elements" lens, which puts a spooky mask on the user's face. The "Tiger Lens" created in partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) was also very popular, and in some regions lenses with endangered animals led to a contribution to WWF.
The survey showed that not only the youngest age group likes to use AR lenses in their chats. The 30-40 age group made up the largest segment of Lens users (23%), followed closely by users in the 40-60 age group (18%). Users under the age of 17 accounted for 13% of Lens users. At the beginning of the school year, a gaming lens was launched in Slovakia, which turned out to be the most popular of the entire Viber portfolio among Slovaks. Almost 200 users used the professional lens and tried to find out what their future profession would be.
Viber has also featured a special selection of festive seasonal lenses, from cute reindeer and fun sleighs to pretty frozen queens, to make your holidays more lively and fun than ever. You can find them by opening the camera in any chat and tapping the ghost icon. "During a challenging year, when many people continued to keep face-to-face contact to a minimum due to the pandemic, Viber stepped in and tapped into their digital communication to revitalize it," says Anna Znamenskaya, the company's Chief Growth Officer Rakuten Viber. "Whether it's sending greetings to friends, using a lens that makes them look like a tiger, or supporting brands with a visual statement they love, people are looking for fun ways to stay connected."
