Exclusive: BlackBerry Messenger Has Over 80 Million Active Users And Will Continue To Provide Its Customers Innovative Features

Yesterday, BlackBerry announced that the BB messenger is coming to Windows mobile and Lumia devices soon. We had a chance to catch up with Krishnadeep Baruah, Senior Marketing Director for BBM Asia Pacific, BlackBerry and he gave us all the inside news related to the one of the most used messenger service in the world. Here is what he told us.

· How is the BB messenger doing on other platforms such as iOS and Android. Any numbers you would like to share?
Launched in Oct 2013, BBM on Android and iOS was an instant success globally across the two platforms. The application witnessed 10 Million downloads within the first 24 hours of the application going live. Within a week since its launch, BBM was also amongst the top free overall apps across 35 countries in Google Play and 107 countries in the App Store, and continues to maintain a strong position in key markets.

Today, there are more than 80 million active BBM users across BlackBerry, Android and iPhone. Additionally, BBM also comes pre-loaded on more than a dozen Android OEMs, including most recently LG, Micromax, Celkon, Spice and Zen to name a few.

· Is Blackberry planning to monetize the messenger solution on iOS and Android. If so, in what manner?
We are exploring a number of revenue streams for BBM. Right now our focus is on growing the number of monthly active users of BBM and exploring strategies that help us leverage the strength of BBM such as our passionate user base, our high levels of engagement, our focus on relevant content, relevant conversations and community building.

· What are the next steps in the evolution of BBM and allied services?
BBM continues to evolve as a social mobile platform for consumers as well as for business customers through innovative features offering simplified ways to connect and share with others. In Feb 2014, we launched an upgrade of BBM for the Android and iOS users adding some new and exciting features enclosed below:
BBM Voice: This feature allows the user to make free calls to BBM contacts over Wi-Fi or data connection with BBM Voice. The user can also respond to messages while on BBM Voice call.
BBM Channels: BBM Channels lets customers chat with other BBM users about topics that interest them. Channels can be created by brands, businesses and BBM customers alike and are a great way to communicate directly and immediately with people who share common interests in the broader BBM community. Today, there are approx. 250,000 BBM Channels across the globe. Some of the Indian Channels are: Airtel, Firstpost.com, Ganna, and CCD among others.

Dropbox integration: With Dropbox built in to BBM, users can send a file from their personal cloud directly to a BBM contact. On the receiving end, users can save the file directly to their smartphone or add it to the Dropbox account
Location Sharing: This unique feature, powered by Glympse, enables the user to share their real-time location with one or several BBM contacts for a specified amount of time. They can specify the duration for which they want to be discoverable by location, through a predefined timer. When the timer runs out, the customers’ location becomes private again
Emoticons: BBM now has more than 100 new emoticons which have been added to the existing set of emoticons. It is worth noting that a number of the new emoticons have been developed based on user recommendation.
FindFriends: BBM now includes a new find friends feature that allows you to discover people you know that are already on BBM, allowing invites from within the BBM app. The find friends feature detects contacts in your smartphone contact list that use BBM and allows you to quickly send an invitation on BBM.
Going forward we would continue to deliver new functionality to BBM across platforms providing users a simple and effective way to stay connected.

· How is the BBM for desktop program coming along?
We are continuously working towards enhancing the BBM experience for our consumers. We will keep you posted.

· Anything else you would like to add? Future plans etc.?
With a total base of 80 million users, BBM is one of the largest private social mobile networks, driving real, active conversations. We at BlackBerry will continue to work towards providing our consumers with innovative features that will enable them to connect and share with each other.