BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) is now relying heavily on its mobile application services as it struggles with its device business in Indonesia, which is one of the most important consumer market for the company. The Canadian smartphone manufacturer is seeking to monetize the application services in the region
Indonesia holds big potential for BlackBerry
Matthew Talbot, senior vice president for emerging sales at BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB), told that the Jakarta Post that the company had plans of approaching the brick and mortar retailers and e-commerce players for partnerships. Talbot said Thursday that these partnerships will help the company in monetizing their services.
Talbot said both, the virtual shop of BlackBerry and BlackBerry’s e-money application dubbed BlackBerry Messenger Money (BBM Money), were used for advertising by e-commerce marketplaces Qoo10, Tokopedia and Elevenia. The executive, further, informed that globally advertisement requests received by the company per day were noted at 300 million in December last day, and in January this figure went up to an average of 400 million.
“There’s a good opportunity to bring more and more merchants to the table as there is a large volume of retailers that are emerging in Indonesia,” he said, adding that Indonesia was the second-fastest growing e-commerce market after China. Internet penetration in the country is estimated to reach 55% by 2017 as informed by financial services company UBS, adding that there has been exponential growth in the e-commerce of Indonesia in recent years. An e-commerce provider Vela Asia said that the e-commerce market in Indonesia was calculated at $8 billion in 2013 and by 2016, it is forecasted to grow to $25 billion.
Not BlackBerry devices, but BBM popular
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) has lost its smartphone share in the country to global competitors that include Apple, Samsung and LG. However, the case is not the same with the messaging application, BBM, and it remains the most popular in the country. BBM is used by 80% of the smartphone users in the country for 23 minutes a day, says a report from Nielsen, released last year.
Competing chat apps, WhatsApp and Line, are being used by way less number of smartphone users. The time spent on the apps on the daily basis being six and five minutes, and the number of smartphone users using the apps was 57% and 30% respectively, according to the study.
