Viber gets swept up by sticker revolution

YOU may have noticed a crop of new custom emoticons in your mobile chat apps. Chat software makers call them "stickers", and companies think they're the main key to making money today.

Voice app Viber is the latest to jump on the apps bandwagon. It was first launched in end-2010 and is one of the oldest players in the market of chat apps, standing out from the rest of the herd because it's the only one which started as a voice app.

The Cyprus-based company is positioned as a Skype competitor, and still bills itself as a "free calling" app. But it has started to tag on the "free messaging" line as well.