Back in the day before WhatsApp became really popular and other instant messengers flooded the market, there was BBM. The app was available as an exclusive to BlackBerry devices back in the day, at least until last year when BlackBerry decided to open it up to Android and iOS users as well, potentially adding more users to its user base.
Now according to BlackBerry, they have revealed during their conference call that at the moment BBM is sitting at 85 million monthly active users and have about 113 million registered users in total as well. They also claim to have managed to triple the number of BBM Channels to 500,000 where users read about 11.5 Channel posts a day which they have deemed to be “engaging”.
While 85 million active users and 113 million registered users does seem like a lot of users, safe to say that despite BBM’s early lead, they are still far behind WhatsApp. Last we heard, WhatsApp was sitting on around 400 million users and even WeChat, a relatively new player, is catching up with their announcement of 355 million active users. We’re not sure what BlackBerry can do to attract more users, but what do you guys think? Do you foresee BBM ever catching up to the likes of WhatsApp and WeChat in the future?