“Rakuten Viber,” one of the world’s leading messaging apps, has signed a deal with Medialink Animation International, a subsidiary of its Hong Kong-listed company, Medialink Group, one of Asia’s biggest licensing agencies, to turn the app’s sticker characters into merchandise that Filipino users can enjoy.

“Medialink brings solid expertise, knowledge and great passion to help us take our massively successful sticker characters into the real world in the Philippines – a market with an 85 percent interest in owning ‘Viber’-branded products,” says Matan Kaufman, product marketing director, Viber. “Just knowing that ‘Viber’ fans will soon get to extend their love for Violet, LegCat and other characters in more tangible quality ways is truly exciting and a great step into deepening our relationship with our audience of over 1 billion users globally.”

Soon, fans will be able to find merchandise based on these beloved sticker characters in leading stores in the Philippines.

“We’re very excited to be working with ‘Viber’ on this project,” says Noletta Chiu, executive director, Medialink. “With our best effort and experienced team, we are sure that we can create the first successful ‘Viber’ licensing. We know that this venture will be a success because Viber’s sticker characters are already so ingrained in the everyday chats of Filipinos. It’s only natural that consumers will embrace them even more fully through official merchandise. It’s an exciting venture for ‘Rakuten Viber.’ and Medialink is incredibly honored to be part of it.”