By ADEDEJI FAKOREDE
AFRICA is clearly a mobile-first market, with the majority of people accessing the internet from mobile rather than desktop devices. According to BlackBerry, with many people coming online for the first time in recent years, BBM has seen quite a bit of growth.
South Africa and Nigeria are two of the biggest African markets where BBM continues to be a strong messaging tool across Android, iOS, BlackBerry 10 and BBO, with over 22 million registered customers in Africa and over 380 million messages being sent daily, investigation revealed.
With the latest developments BBM has the local content and value-added services like payments to keep consumers engaged and attract advertisers.
It is quickly turning these ingredients into a thriving platform for communication and commerce.
Matthew Talbot, senior vice president, Emerging Solutions at BlackBerry, in a blog post, detailed the latest developments and growth of BBM in the African market and why big-name brands such as KFC, Levi’s, Datsun, First National Bank and Lenovo move onto the platform each week.
On why BBM is thriving in Nigeria and South Africa, Talbot, recalls, “Back in August, I visited South Africa and spent some time with a number of BlackBerry’s mobile operator partners, BBM’s advertising and content partners and some payment providers we were considering for partnership opportunities. Having spent many years working with South African mobile operators and banks in past roles, I have always been amazed at the potential of the market there. But on this trip, I learned something new about the value of the BlackBerry and BBM brands both in South Africa in particular and across the entire continent in general. It’s big. That’s particularly exciting because of all the growth we’ve been seeing in this market in the last few years”.