BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) surprised the messaging app industry after its internet-based instant messenger and telephony application known as BlackBerry Messenger or BBM added more than 20 million users in one week after launching it across iPhone and Android devices.
More than 80 million MAUs
In a blog post, Andrew Bocking, BlackBerry’s executive vice president for BBM a said the messaging app has more than 80 million monthly active users (MAUs) across Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry smartphones.
According to Bocking, BBM is the leading free app in 35 countries on GooglePlay and in 107 countries in AppStoreSM. He added that the messaging up continues to hold a strong position in key markets including Canada, Indonesia, Middle East, United Kingdom, and the United States.
“The momentum of BBM for BlackBerry, Android, and iPhone continues to grow, and while we are excited by the download numbers we saw this week; downloads do not speak to the way people interact with each other using BBM. We will now focus on active use of BBM—the connections being made and the conversations in which our BBM community engages,” said Bocking.
BBM user engagement beat or matched some rivals
A related report from BGR indicated that data from Mobidia showed that the key metric of weekly user engagement showed that BBM equaled or beat some competitors in the messaging app industry immediately after its launching. The Canadian smartphone manufacturer launched BBM for Android and iPhone last month. According to BlackBerry, 10 million users downloaded BBM 24 within the first 24 hours of its launching.
During the week ended October 20, the user engagement for BBM was 40 minutes in the United States, higher than 24-minute user engagement of Tango, and it almost matched the 44-minute user engagement level of Viber. Kik is the leading messaging app with 106 minutes of user engagement.
BBM’s 59 minutes user engagement in European markets outperformed Line, a Japanese instant messaging app with 38 minutes user engagement in the region. The number one instant messaging platform in Europe is WhatsApp with 160 minutes user engagement.
