BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) BBM is a separate entity, and the company wants it to develop into a business model of its own. The Canadian firm is counting heavily on this messenger app to do wonders for it. BBM already has a huge set of loyal customers, and is among the most popular messaging apps in the world. The company wants the users to spend more time using the app automatically leading to higher ARPU i.e. Average Revenue Per User.
Growing popularity of BBM
BBM till recently was available on the BB platform only, but the company has now made it available on other platforms as well. This will further help in adding more users and more ARPU. Several million users have been added to the BBM app with the help of native apps designed by BlackBerry for Android, iPhone and Windows Phone. The reach of BBM has been widened after its cross-platform availability in October 2013. The total number of users at present is 91 million including those on BlackBerry, Android and iPhone.
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) has designed its strategy well for increasing the ARPU. It has plans to offer its customers payments, virtual goods, stickers and other content thus providing more value to its customers. BlackBerry is targeting the enterprise users as well with eBBM business suite. The company is set to attract the advertisers as well with channels, sponsored content and targeted mobile ads.
BlackBerry attracting advertisers
Traditional advertising media that included radio, TV, magazines, newspapers etc. is losing popularity among the viewers, and the attention in now diverted to the social media, which is accessible on mobiles and desktops for numerous reasons. Promoting the products online is a better way as this media has more customers. Small businesses that cannot afford to spend much can also make use of social advertising as it is very cost-effective.
Advertisers can make use of the large number of active users on BBM. The BBM service is used on a daily basis by 72% of BBM’s monthly user base, says a report from Blackberry Rocks. This keeps it ahead of Facebook and WhatsApp in terms of most widely used social app. Messaging derives more value from games, virtual goods and stickers. Those mobile messaging apps that have tried this already have benefitted from it hugely. A similar business model will be adopted by BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) for BBM.
