BlackBerry’s BBM will celebrate its tenth birthday this month, and it seems it already got a birthday present. July was one of the strongest months in BBM growth records, BBM Senior VP Matthew Talbot said in a blog post.
BBM impressive on many counts
“Indeed, July was one of our strongest months on record for BBM growth,” Talbot said, highlighting BBM’s mobile commerce momentum.
Talbot said growth escalated due to the release of BBMv2.9, with material design enhancements for Android 5.0 Lollipop and “strong word-of-mouth.” The summer holidays also contributed as youngsters were on a break from school or on leave.
BBM’s ad business experienced “record new milestones” too, Talbot informed investors. TD Bank, Mint, Samsung, RedMart (retail) and Manulife (insurance), Smartfren (devices), Traveloca (travel) and the New York Times are some of the main advertisers on BBM. BlackBerry also started offering video ads, and the first set of clients included King.com, OLX and Studio M Hotel.
“Video ads provide a great opportunity to drive higher revenues, while also exposing BBM users to newer exciting content on our platform,” Talbot said.
Detailing brand-sponsored sticker campaigns, the blog reported that Line-owner Rakuten was the most popular campaign, garnering 35 million impressions in just two weeks for partner websites with the help of embedded and customizable link stickers.
More potential ahead for BlackBerry BBM
In a recent e-commerce campaign in Indonesia, BlackBerry’s mobile payment service, BBM Money, overtook bank transfers and other payment methods (not credit cards) in terms of converting prospective consumers into actual sales, the blog post said. A new PayPal integration service for peer-to-peer payments will also be launched soon, as for now the service is limited to Canada. This will allow BBM users to transfer money to their family and friends just by linking their account with PayPal.
BlackBerry may not be popular among smartphone users now, but it has carved out a specific space in the cross-platform messaging segment. If BlackBerry is acquired, as rumors have been suggesting, BBM will surely fetch good money for the Canadian firm.
On Tuesday, BlackBerry shares closed down 3.3% at $6.74. Year to date, the stock is down by almost 39%, while in the last year, shares have fallen by over 32%.
