Blackberry Messenger (BBM), one of the most loved instant messaging applications, is shutting down its consumer service on May 31, 2019.
Emtek, the Indonesia-based media conglomerate which took over its development in 2016, said “instant messaging is a very fluid and competitive” and it cannot compete in the space as people have moved on to WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and others.
“Since 2016 we have tried our best to compete in this market and launch many new features and content that we had hoped would grow the BBM user base. Despite all of our efforts, we found that the network effect of the market leaders is getting stronger and we have been squeezed out of user preferences.”
“Today we’re announcing that we will be closing BBM consumer service on 31 May 2019. “Though we are sad to say goodbye, the time has come to sunset the BBM consumer service, and for us to move on.
“We are grateful for your support and wish to thank everyone, especially our users, partners, and employees, for being part of the BBM consumer service journey,” the company said in ablog post.
BBM once a king among messaging apps in Nigeria
BlackBerry Messenger was one of the most loved messaging platforms in Nigeria, launched by Research in Motion, BlackBerry’s original name in 2005 for Blackberry smartphones. In 2013, it rolled out service on Android and was the talk of the town as Android users joined the king of messaging apps as at then.
Not only BBM, last year, Verizon Communications through Oath Inc. also shut down one of the oldest messaging platforms, Yahoo Messengerover stiff internet competition.
Blackberry opens BBMe, its enterprise-grade version for normal users
Blackberry said the enterprise version of BlackBerry Messenger (BBMe) will be available for normal end users for free following the decision by Emtek to shut down the consumer version on May 31.
The company said after a year, it will introduce a six-month subscription.
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