BlackBerry has signed a partnership with Jakarta-based Emtek to make BBM a profitable enterprise.
The goal of the alliance is to transform BBM’s cross-platform offerings “through new content-rich features and innovative BBM services.” To ensure the products and services are deployed in a timely manner, Emtek’s digital business KMK Online has plans to open a Toronto office.
As part of the arrangement, with an effort to “bring significant value and services to BBM,” Emtek will enable free-to-air (FTA) shows with over 100,000 hours of TV and premium content, new games, coupons, and access to the latest news.
“Licensing BlackBerry software and IP is part of the company’s strategy to increase revenue and improve margins. Not only does the alliance with Emtek facilitate this goal, it achieves operational and cost efficiencies while driving growth in the BBM business as Emtek will invest in people, infrastructure, technology development and the ecosystem,” said BlackBerry in a statement sent to MobileSyrup.
Some of the new initiatives set to go out to BBM”S 60 million monthly active users in Indonesia are:
- Content – music and video streaming, games, sports and news channels, celebrity blogs and more
- Commerce – shopping, gifting and coupons/vouchers
- Online to Offline Commerce – booking movies, travel, health services or job postings
- Finance – payment processing, money transfer, mobile phone re-charge, and utilities billing
“Emtek’s impressive background and pedigree in entertainment, content and technology makes them the perfect partner to maximize the potential of BlackBerry’s messaging platform while meeting our financial and operational goals,” said BlackBerry CEO John Chen.
“Our BBM users are passionate people that truly value BBM as the best way to share and connect with each other. We wanted to continue to offer our users even more with the most content-rich media and new services such as e-commerce, video, music and games.”
BBM is currently available on Blackberry, iOS, Android and Window Phone devices.
[source]BlackBerry[/source]
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