BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) is making all efforts to hold onto users who are still relying on the company via its massaging app BBM. To enrich the experience, the Canadian firm is now offering BBM users an undisturbed service, which will be free of sponsored content. On Tuesday, BBM product and brand marketing head Jeff Gadway informed through a blog post that BBM Channel creators will be allowed to send sponsored posts and invites to their subscribers, but such content won’t find its way into the actual chats.
According to Gadway, the sponsored content will be “direct, relevant, friendly.”
Three types of sponsored content
Gadway, further, explains that BBM Channel users will witness three different types of sponsored content from channel owners. Featured placements, which are the promotions from the channel owners to register new users, will be visible on the Featured Channels landing page. Sponsored invites, which are sent by channel owners to a limited number of BBM users based on the age, location, interests, and other information provided by the user, will be controlled and limited by BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) to three per month per user.
Sponsored posts including updates from other channels will be visible alongside the updates from BBM Contacts and BBM Channels, however, users will be free to chose the posts they want to see.
Giving an example, Gadway explains that if a user is a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and he or she receives an update from a rival hockey team, then the user can easily “block future sponsored updates from this other team.” This will be beneficial to both the user and the channel owner as the former will not be receiving any more sponsored updates from channels he or she is not interested in, and for the channel owners they will be saving time and resources by avoiding uninterested BBM users.
BlackBerry to make chat more user friendly
BBM users filtering their updates to show only contacts won’t be troubled with any sponsored posts. Gadway also promised to keep away sponsored posts and similar content from the actual chats.
“We will not be inserting sponsored content of any kind in to BBM chats with your friends, family, and colleagues,” Gadway said. “We understand that keeping the BBM chat experience you know and love free of this type of content is important to you.”
For BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB), which is struggling to raise funds, sponsored content could become an important revenue source considering the 85 million BBM users.
