BBM Teams with Bukalapak to Launch BBM Shopping

Enables one of Southeast Asia’s Largest Marketplaces to Continue Expand its Retail Footprint to Reach 64+ Million BBM Mobile Active Users in Indonesia

Jakarta, Indonesia – 2 December, 2016 – Creative Media Works, a stand-alone consumer-focused social networking business operating as BBM, has teamed up with Bukalapak, one of Southeast Asia’s largest e-Commerce marketplaces to offer BBM Shopping to consumers across iOS and Android platforms in Indonesia.

Slated to launch in early December 2016, BBM Shopping will offer consumers access to millions of products, and special offers to only BBM users in a streamlined, mobile-friendly shopping experience with secured payment all within BBM.

For Bukalapak’s customers, they can seamlessly link their existing online account to BBM Shopping. First time users are only required to set up their account once, without the need to re-login for subsequent usage to make payments all within the BBM environment. With BBM Shopping, Bukalapak’s vast pool of merchants will also be able to reach over 64 million BBM mobile active users in Indonesia.

“We are proud to announce this collaboration as part of our effort to reach customers better, and expand the spirit of online marketplace to new and innovative platforms. We will strive to empower SMEs and that includes our existing sellers (Pelapak) as well as new Pelapak. With the simple, easy, fast, and efficient feature that BBM Shopping offers, I am confident that this collaboration will encourage everyone to join and become a part of the online marketplace,” said Achmad Zaky, Founder and CEO of Bukalapak.

BBM is one of the largest mobile messaging applications. Since it was created in August 2005, BBM has evolved from a pure messaging application for communication (text and video) to a social eco-system unifying chat, social, commerce and services including the likes of bill payments, top-up, vouchers/coupons, games, news, video and shopping.

BBM Shopping is powered by BBM Checkout, which securely stores payment credentials and shipping information after the first purchase. Thus making it a fast, easy, seamless and convenient way to pay for transactions on-the-go.

“BBM continues to be the most-installed and most commonly used messaging application in Indonesia,” said Matthew Talbot, CEO of Creative Media Works, the company which operates and runs BBM globally. “We’re transforming BBM from a tool enabling real-time chat between two people into a sophisticated mobile platform where brands can not only interact with consumers, but ultimately drive purchases. We’re also decreasing the amount of time spent at checkout with a highly efficient checkout process, which will result in higher sales conversion rate for merchants who will then experience less shopping cart abandonment.”

“As BBM strives to develop new features and services to provide convenience to our users, and value to our partners, we’ll soon be expanding the ability for buyers to communicate through BBM Chat with sellers in BBM Shopping, creating an engaging user experience,” added Talbot.

About BBM

On 27 June 2016, Creative Media Works, a division of PT Elang Mahkota Teknologi Tbk. (Emtek, IDX:EMTK) – one of Indonesia’s largest media, content and technology businesses – announced a long term strategic alliance with BlackBerry Limited to accelerate consumer BBM’s research and development in offering new and exciting features, services and content to the global consumer market. As part of this strategy, BBM is making its APIs available to expedite the growth of partners and consumer services such as:

• Content – music and video streaming, games, sports, news, celebrity blogs, horoscopes and more
• Commerce – shopping, gifting and coupons/vouchers
• Online to Offline Commerce – booking movies, travel, health services, real-estate or job postings
• Finance – P2P payments, money transfer, mobile phone re-charge, and utilities billing

Creative Media Works now operates under the BBM banner as a stand-alone consumer focused business with teams operating from Waterloo, Mississauga, Ottawa, Singapore, Jakarta, UAE and South Africa. For more information, visit www.bbm.com.

Trademarks, including but not limited to BBM and BBM Design are the trademarks or registered trademarks of BlackBerry Limited, used under license, and the exclusive rights to such trademarks are expressly reserved.

Android is a trademark of Google Inc.

iOS is a registered trademark of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and certain other countries. iOS® is used under license by Apple Inc.
Windows® Windows is either a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries

About Bukalapak

Bukalapak is a provider of a customer to customer (C2C) based marketplace – be it retail or wholesale transactions, through mobile application and website.  As the nation’s largest online marketplace, Bukalapak has an active role in the advancement of the national e-commerce industry through the empowering of Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Bukalapak’s community is spread across more than 80 cities throughout Indonesia.

In 2016, Bukalapak recently received the Satyalancana Wira Karya badge of honor which was  awarded and pinned by the Indonesian President Joko Widodo. The badge signifies the country’s attestation to a person’s key contribution and services towards the country, allowing him to become an exemplary figure. Further information please visit http://bukalapak.com/

Popularity of Games Confirms Strategy to Bring More Content, Services and Brands to BBM

Games have arrived in BBM—and in a big way. We launched the first, Fruits Mania with BBM (for Android), at the beginning of the month in Indonesia, our biggest market. It was a huge hit, to the tune of 100,000 downloads in the first few days! It quickly became one of the top five games on Google Play.

Two weeks later, we released Rogue Life with BBM, also in Indonesia. We saw a similarly enthusiastic response and we will be launching one game every two weeks until the end of the year.

Both games offer single-player and multi-player options, so you can ace all the levels yourself, or invite your friends and family to join in the fun via BBM. Download the free-to-play games, Fruits Mania and Rogue Life, on Google Play.

Chat, games and news drive mobile usage

This is great confirmation of our ongoing strategy of bringing content and services to BBM. Studies show that people spend the bulk of their time on mobile doing three things: chatting, playing games, and reading news. So, we’re bringing games, news, and other useful content to chat.

The numbers we’re seeing in terms of engagement with gaming on the BBM platform backs up the fact that we are spending more time on messaging apps—even more than we’re spending on social media.

In the news department, our own BBM Life news and video channel launched over the summer. The channel from Indonesian TV new program Liputan6.com (C002EC21B) brings regular updates to millions of subscribers.

Next, we’re gearing up to extend both games and news beyond Indonesia to our other markets globally.

Brands can fill the marketing “gap” on mobile

It’s fairly common knowledge that when it comes to the internet, our activity and engagement is moving to mobile. Every year, we shop more on mobile. (Alibaba reported that 82% of its biggest-shopping-day Single’s Day sales came from mobile this year, up from 72% last year.) We bank more on mobile, book travel on mobile, use mobile GPS, pay with our phones… Our mobiles have become indispensable tools for so many different things. Studies show we’re spending hours a day with our devices—and often two to three times as long as we think.

What’s more, recent research shows that more people share content via “dark media,” (email and messaging apps), than on social media: 77% to 23%.

Clearly, mobile messaging is the place to be. Yet marketers and brands have been slow to adopt in mainstream. There’s currently a gap between the number of people and amount of activity on messaging apps and the marketers there to meet them. In BBM, we’ve been working with a few pioneering brands, but we’re hoping more will see the writing on the wall, and want to catch up with consumers in messaging apps via their own content, games, stickers, videos and more. There are so many opportunities. With mobile penetration and usage rates in our biggest markets continuing to climb, those opportunities only get bigger.

Coming soon: shopping and travel

Speaking of opportunity, we’re taking our own advice! We’ll be launching two new services in Indonesia next month: BBM Shopping and BBM Travel. We’ll let you know more shortly. For now, rest assured that we’re hard at work to make BBM your favorite platform, and the center of your digital life.

Investing in the Right Partner to Accelerate and Advance BBM Globally

“Digital frontrunners” all know that real-time messaging apps reign supreme when it comes to staying connected and engaged with each other. Over the years, BlackBerry’s messaging service, BBM, has built a cult following around the world. These users have experienced an expansion of great capabilities and services – everything ranging from BBM Channels to video to timed messages, just to name a few. But, we know users are always looking to have more and be able to do more on their messaging platforms.

We want to do everything we can to advance BBM for the consumer market. That’s why we’re excited to announce that we are forming a strategic alliance with Emtek – Indonesia’s leading digital media content company. Through a licensing agreement, Emtek will be able to develop new BBM applications and services for Android, iOS, and Windows Phones.

Our goal was to find the right partner to help us accelerate growth and give customers the best and most advanced services, and this partnership with Emtek does just that. Joining efforts this way makes the entire BBM business stronger because it enables the growth of both consumer and enterprise BBM. Emtek advances the platform for the consumer market, and BlackBerry will continue to advance the platform for enterprise with BBM Protected, which provides the world’s most secure messaging for Android, iOS, BB10, and BBOS.

Because the consumer business for BBM has been growing quickly – especially in Indonesia where there are nearly 60 million monthly active users – we needed a partner with the most impressive ecosystem, investments, and technology chops. The alliance will integrate BBM’s social, chat, commerce, and content capabilities with Emtek’s substantial portfolio of media and assets that include broadcast television, web properties, content production, and artists. This means customers will get more:

• 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 recharge, and utilities billing

Detailed planning is now underway and we can’t wait for this partnership to flourish. Keep an eye out on the Inside BlackBerry blog as we deliver on the new capabilities and services in the coming months. For more information about today’s announcement, please read here.

BLACKBERRY DAN EMTEK BEKERJA SAMA GUNA MENINGKATKAN DAN MENGEMBANGKAN LAYANAN KONSUMEN BBM SECARA GLOBAL

Aliansi untuk mentransformasikan layanan lintas platform BBM melalui fitur baru yang kaya akan konten serta layanan-layanan BBM yang inovatif

Waterloo, Ontario dan Jakarta, Indonesia – 27 Juni 2016 – BlackBerry Limited (NASDAQ: BBRY; TSX: BB), pemimpin global dalam komunikasi mobile yang aman, mengumumkan aliansi strategis dengan PT Elang Mahkota Teknologi Tbk (Emtek, BEI: EMTK) yang akan memberikan para pengguna BBM akses kepada konten dan layanan yang kaya. Kemitraan ini diusung guna mempercepat visi BlackBerry untuk memajukan BBM untuk pasar konsumen melalui perjanjian lisensi dengan Grup Emtek yang memungkinkan perusahaan untuk mengembangkan aplikasiaplikasi dan layanan-layanan baru BBM untuk pangsa pasar Android, iOS dan Windows Phone.

Untuk memperkuat aliansi, KMK Online sebagai divisi konten digital Emtek, akan mendirikan kantor di wilayah Toronto untuk bekerja sama dengan BlackBerry. KMK Online memiliki jangkauan yang luas dalam aset-aset media yang akan dikombinasikan dengan lebih dari 20 perusahaan dan investasi Emtek untuk menciptakan layanan dan nilai yang signifikan bagi BBM. Investasi-investasi ini mencakup siaran televisi, situs dan aset web, produksi konten dan para artis seniman. Dengan demikian, dalam beberapa bulan mendatang, para pengguna akan memiliki akses ke sejumlah besar konten, diantaranya, nasional free-to-air (FTA) televisi, salah satu platform video online terkemuka, tiga rumah produksi eksklusif dan perpustakaan konten TV sebesar lebih dari 100.000 jam dan konten premium lainnya.

BlackBerry juga akan memperluas ekosistem mobilitas terbuka dengan membuat aplikasi program antarmuka (interface) BBM (API) yang tersedia untuk Emtek agar dapat mempercepat pertumbuhan para mitra dan penyedia layanan jasa.

Dengan mengintegrasikan fitur sosial, chatting, perdagangan BBM dengan portofolio aset dan ekosistem Emtek yang cukup signifikan, akan membantu memaksimalkan potensi BBM untuk memberikan para pelanggan akses baru terhadap hal hal baru seperti:

• Konten – musik dan video streaming, game, jaringan olahraga dan berita, selebriti blog dan lebih banyak lagi
• Perdagangan – belanja, hadiah dan kupon / voucher
• Perdagangan Online to Offline – mereservasi bioskop, perjalanan wisata, pelayanan kesehatan atau lowongan pekerjaan
• Keuangan – proses pembayaran, transfer uang, isi ulang ponsel dan utilitas penagihan

Sebagai salah satu pemberi layanan pesan terdepan, BBM antar platform telah mengalami popularitas yang signifikan di Indonesia, dengan mencapai hampir 60 juta pengguna aktif per bulannya. Emtek, sebagai perusahaan media dan konten terkemuka Indonesia, adalah rekan bisnis yang ideal dalam upaya pengembangan inovasi dan kemampuan aplikasi BBM.

Lisensi software dan kekayaan intelektual Blackberry adalah salah satu langkah strategi perusahaan dalam meningkatkan pendapatan dan menaikan marjin laba. Kerjasama dengan Emtek tidak hanya memfasilitasi pencapaian target tersebut, tetapi juga akan membantu perusahaan dalam mencapai efeisiensi operasional dan biaya serta dalam waktu yang bersamaan juga meningkatkan pertumbuhan bisnis BBM karena Emtek akan melakukan investasi sumber daya manusia, infrastruktur, pengembangan teknologi dan ekosistem.

Latar belakang Emtek yang kuat dalam indsutri hiburan, konten dan teknologi menjadikan Grup Emtek sebagai rekanan bisnis yang sempurna untuk memaksimalkan potensi aplikasi pesan BBM sekaligus juga memenuhi tujuan keuangan dan operasional kami,” kata John Chen, Executive Chairman dan CEO, BlackBerry. “Pengguna BBM adalah orang-orang yang penuh gairah yang benar-benar menghargai BBM sebagai cara terbaik untuk berbagi dan terhubung satu sama lain. Kami ingin terus menawarkan pengguna kami dengan media yang lebih kaya akan konten dan layanan baru seperti e-commerce, video, musik dan game.”

“Kerjasama kami dengan BlackBerry akan memungkinkan para pengguna BBM untuk mengakses konten eksklusif berupa hiburan, teknologi dan produk dan layanan digital Emtek yang banyak dicari” kata Alvin Sariaatmadja, CEO Emtek. “Kami melihat peluang besar untuk mengembangkan bisnis konsumen BBM secara global dan bersemangat untuk berinvestasi dalam penelitian dan pengembangan untuk lebih memajukan BBM.”

Bermitra dengan Emtek memungkinkan pertumbuhan sektor konsumen dan korporat BBM. Seiring pengembangan Emtek atas platform konsumen, Blackberry akan meneruskan pertumbuhan platform korparat dengan BBM Protected, layanan pesan antar platform yang paling aman di dunia. BBM Protected menyediakan layanan pesan di level korporat untuk iOS, BB10 dan BBOS, dan memungkinkan para pengguna untuk terus terhubung dan berinteraksi satu sama lain dengan mengirimkan pesan, suara dan komunikasi video.

Tentang Blackberry

Blackberry mengamankan dunia yang saling terhubung, memberikan solusi inovatif di seluruh ekosistem mobile secara luas. Blackberry mengamankan data paling sensitif di dunia di semua titik akhir – dari mobil hingga telepon pintar – membuat visinya untuk menjadi pemberi layanan mobilefirst menjadi kenyataan. Didirikan pada tahun 1984 dan berdomisili di Waterloo, Ontario, BlackBerry memiliki kantor-kantor yang beroperasi di Amerika Utara, Eropa, Timur Tengah dan Afrika, Asia Pasifik dan Amerika Latin. Saham Blackberry terdaftar dengan simbol ticker “BB” di Bursa Efek Toronto dan “BBRY” di NASDAQ. Untuk informasi lebih lanjut, kunjungi http://www.BlackBerry.com.

Tentang Emtek

Emtek Group adalah grup media, konten dan teknologi terbesar di Indonesia. Emtek Grup mengoperasikan 3 stasiun televisi free-to-air (SCTV, Indosiar dan O-Channel), stasiun televisiberbayar (Nexmedia) dan beberapa perusahaan jasa solusi IT, dan kehadiran Grup Emtek dalam industri media online telah terasa cukup besar melalui anak usahanya PT Kreatif Media Karya (KMK). Sehubungan dengan bisnis televisinya, Emtek Group juga merupakan pemegang saham pengendali di beberapa rumah produksi, yang diantaranya telah berhasil menghasilkan film untuk bioskop dan televisi, drama seri dan animasi. KMK difokuskan pada upaya pertumbuhan Grup di industri online. KMK saat ini memiliki dan mengoperasikan portal Liputan6.com, salah satu dari 3 portal berita top di Indonesia, portal video Vidio.com, portal hiburan Bintang.com, portal olahraga Bola.com dan portal kerja lokal terkemuka Karir.com. KMK juga telah melakukan investasi di beberapa perusahaan lain termasuk Grup PropertyGuru, portal properti online terkemuka di Asia Tenggara dan Bukalapak.com, pasar online terkemuka di Indonesia. Untuk informasi lebih lanjut tentang Emtek, silahkan kunjungi http://www.emtek.co.id.

# # #

Pernyataan berwawasan ke depan dalam siaran pers ini dibuat sesuai dengan ketentuan “safe harbor” dari UU AS Reformasi Litigasi Sekuritas Swasta tahun 1995 (the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) dan undangundang pasar modal Kanada yang berlaku. Ketika digunakan di sini, kata-kata seperti “mengharapkan”, “mengantisipasi”, “estimasi”, “mungkin”, “akan”, “harus”, “bermaksud”, “percaya”, dan ekspresi serupa, dimaksudkan untuk mengidentifikasi laporan yang bersifat berwawasan ke depan. Pernyataan berwawasan ke depan didasarkan pada estimasi dan asumsi yang dibuat oleh BlackBerry Limited berdasarkan pengalaman dan persepsi dari tren historis, kondisi saat ini dan perkembangan masa depan yang diharapkan, serta faktor-faktor lain yang BlackBerry percaya sesuai dengan kondisinya. Banyak faktor yang dapat menyebabkan hasil aktual, kinerja atau prestasi BlackBerry berbeda secara material dari yang dinyatakan atau tersirat oleh pernyataan berwawasan ke depan, termasuk yang dijelaskan di bagian “Faktor Risiko” dari BlackBerry’s Annual Information Form, yang termasuk dalam Laporan Tahunan pada Form 40-F (salinan yang pengajuan dapat diperoleh pada http://www.sedar.com atau http://www.sec.gov). Faktor-faktor ini harus dipertimbangkan dengan hati-hati, dan pembaca tidak harus mendasarkan keputusannya pada pernyataan berwawasan ke depan BlackBerry. BlackBerry tidak berniat dan tidak memiliki kewajiban untuk memperbarui atau merevisi pernyataan berwawasan ke depan, apakah sebagai hasil informasi baru, kejadian di masa depan atau sebaliknya, kecuali diwajibkan oleh hukum.

BlackBerry dan merek dagang, nama dan logo adalah milik dari BlackBerry Limited dan telah terdaftar dan / atau digunakan di AS dan negara-negara di seluruh dunia. Semua tanda lain adalah milik dari pemiliknya masing-masing. BlackBerry tidak bertanggung jawab atas setiap produk atau layanan pihak ketiga.

 

BlackBerry and Emtek Forge Partnership to Accelerate and Advance BBM’s Consumer Business Globally

Waterloo, Ontario and Jakarta, Indonesia – June 27, 2016 – BlackBerry Limited (NASDAQ: BBRY; TSX: BB), a global leader in secure mobile communications, announced a strategic alliance with PT Elang Mahkota Teknologi Tbk. (Emtek, IDX:EMTK) that will provide cross-platform BBM users with access to enriched content and services. This landmark partnership accelerates BlackBerry’s vision to advance BBM for the consumer market through a licensing agreement with Emtek Group that enables the company to develop new BBM applications and services for Android, iOS and Windows Phones.

To strengthen the alliance, Emtek’s digital content arm KMK Online will establish an office in the Toronto area to work closely with BlackBerry. KMK Online has a wide breadth of media assets that will be combined with more than 20 of Emtek’s businesses and investments to bring significant value and services to BBM. These investments span across broadcast television, Web properties, content production and artists. This means, in the coming months, users will have access to a plethora of content such as national free-to-air (FTA) television stations, one of the leading online video platforms, three exclusive production houses and a library of more than 100,000 hours of TV and premium content, just to name a few.

BlackBerry will also extend its open mobility ecosystem by making the BBM application program interface (API) available to Emtek in order to accelerate the growth of partners and service providers. Integrating BBM’s social, chat, commerce and content capabilities with Emtek’s substantial portfolio of assets and ecosystem will help maximize the potential of BBM to give customers access to new:

• Content – music and video streaming, games, sports and news channels, celebrity blogs 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

As one of the leading messaging services, BBM cross-platform has seen significant popularity in Indonesia, growing to nearly 60 million monthly active users. Emtek, as Indonesia’s leading media content company, is an ideal partner to advance the innovation and capabilities of the BBM platform.

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.

“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 John Chen, Executive Chairman and CEO, BlackBerry. “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.”

“Our partnership with BlackBerry will allow BBM users to access exclusive content from some of Emtek’s most sought-after entertainment, technology and digital products and services,” said Alvin Sariaatmadja, CEO of Emtek. “We see significant opportunity to grow the consumer BBM business globally and are excited to invest in research and development to further advance BBM.”

Partnering with Emtek enables the growth of both consumer and enterprise BBM. As Emtek advances the platform for the consumer market, BlackBerry will continue to advance the platform for enterprise with BBM Protected, the world’s most secure cross-platform messaging service. BBM Protected provides enterprise-grade messaging for Android, iOS, BB10 and BBOS, and enables users to stay connected and engaged with each other through real time messaging, voice and video communications.

About BlackBerry
BlackBerry is securing a connected world, delivering innovative solutions across the entire mobile ecosystem and beyond. We secure the world’s most sensitive data across all end points – from cars to smartphones – making the mobile-first enterprise vision a reality. Founded in 1984 and based in Waterloo, Ontario, BlackBerry operates offices in North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America. The Company trades under the ticker symbols “BB” on the Toronto Stock Exchange and “BBRY” on the NASDAQ. For more information, visit www.BlackBerry.com.

About Emtek
The Emtek Group is the largest media, content and technology businesses in Indonesia. Emtek Group operates three free to air television channels (SCTV, Indosiar and O-Channel), a Pay-TV business (Nexmedia) and several IT solutions business, and has established a substantial online media presence through its subsidiary PT Kreatif Media Karya (KMK). In conjunction with its television businesses, Emtek Group owns controlling interests in several content production ventures, creating film for cinema and television, drama series and animation. KMK is focused on creating growth for the Group in the online industry. KMK currently owns and operates the Internet portals Liputan6.com, a top 3 news portal in Indonesia, Vidio.com, a video portal, Bintang.com, an entertainment portal, Bola.com, a sports portal, and Karir.com, a leading local job portal. KMK has also made investments in several other companies including PropertyGuru Group, South East Asia’s leading online property portal and Bukalapak.com, an Indonesian online marketplace. For more information, please visit www.emtek.co.id.

Media Contact:
BlackBerry Media Relations
(519) 597-7273
mediarelations@BlackBerry.com

Investor Contact:
BlackBerry Investor Relations
(519) 888-7465
investor_relations@BlackBerry.com

Media Contact:
Emtek Media Relations
+62 21 2793 5555
Mr. Sutanto Hartono
Sutanto@emtek.co.id

Investor Contact:
Investor Relations
+62 21 2793 5555
Mr. Olle Wennerdahl
olle.wennerdahl@emtek.co.id

Forward-looking statements in this news release are made pursuant to the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. When used herein, words such as “expect”, “anticipate”, “estimate”, “may”, “will”, “should”, “intend”, “believe”, and similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by BlackBerry Limited in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that BlackBerry believes are appropriate in the circumstances. Many factors could cause BlackBerry’s actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including those described in the “Risk Factors” section of BlackBerry’s Annual Information Form, which is included in its Annual Report on Form 40-F (copies of which filings may be obtained at http://www.sedar.com or http://www.sec.gov). These factors should be considered carefully, and readers should not place undue reliance on BlackBerry’s forward-looking statements. BlackBerry has no intention and undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

BlackBerry and related trademarks, names and logos are the property of BlackBerry Limited and are registered and/or used in the U.S. and countries around the world. All other marks are the property of their respective owners. BlackBerry is not responsible for any third-party products or services.

Facebook Available on BlackBerry

There has been much news regarding our recent blog post about Great Apps on BlackBerry and I want to clarify that Facebook will continue to support BlackBerry 10 and BBOS. The experience will be slightly different, but you’ll still get the same Facebook features you love (see right). And, of course the full Android Facebook app is available on the PRIV by BlackBerry.

Our fans are fighting for us (#WeAreBlackBerry), and we love their support (#ILoveBB10Apps). That’s why we have worked hard with Facebook to address some technical challenges and the best solution was to move forward with a Web-based app.

For those just hearing about this news, we have an updated web-based Facebook app that replaces the native app for BlackBerry 10 and BBOS. The update is required because the native app will stop working on March 31. The new web-based Facebook app provides additional features not available on the native app, such as:

• Ability to reply to comments and see replies to comments.
• All posts should be loaded, no more “News feed could not be retrieved” or “Post could not be loaded” messages (unless the post was actually removed).
• Any features available to Facebook website users will be available to you in the updated application.

We’ll continue to keep you updated of any new developments. To transition to the Web-based experience on March 31st, visit BlackBerry World on your device and apply the available update for the Facebook application at the following links:

• Upgrade for BlackBerry OS
• Upgrade for BlackBerry 10

For more information, please visit the support page at: http://ca.blackberry.com/support/business/software-support-life-cycle.html

BlackBerry Begins Integrating Good to Create the Most Flexible, Unified EMM Platform on the Market

In the three months since BlackBerry acquired Good Technology, we’ve been hard at work integrating Good into our enterprise software portfolio.  The acquisition, detailed in the webinar Change is Good, creates the single largest EMM provider on the market, with a 20% share according to IDC. Today, we’re ready to announce the next step in this acquisition.

First, unified enrollment is now available between BES12 and the Good Dynamics Secure Mobility Platform. IT can set up both MDM policies and Good Dynamics apps with a single enrollment action, substantially streamlining the process of enrolling new users. With only a few clicks, you can be up and running with all the apps your enterprise users need! Flexible, indeed.

We also haven’t been standing still with individual platform components. We’ve also incorporated substantial updates to several core Good Dynamics apps. The changes are detailed below:

• Good Work: Good’s leading all-in-one collaboration platform, Good Work went through a major update with a focus on improved user experience and enhanced integration. The client now delivers new visual status indicators, improved search performance, a new agenda view and a consolidated view of alerts and notifications.  It now fully supports S/MIME and integrates with new third-party products like Box and HP Voltage.
• Good Access for Windows: Good Access for Windows allows deployment of HTML5 apps in a fully containerized browser, providing a seamless user experience while ensuring that data never leaves enterprise control. For many organizations this provides a compelling alternative to cumbersome legacy products like VDI at a fraction of the cost and complexity.  You can learn more about how it works in the webinar Blurred Lines: Windows 10 PC and Mobile
• Good Connect: We recently integrated Good Connect with Cisco Jabber, providing customers with another option for mobilizing Enterprise Instant Messaging alongside Microsoft Lync. It’s just another sign of how committed BlackBerry is to open integration.

Finally, we’ve upgraded BES12, WatchDox by BlackBerry, and BBM Protected:

• Support for Cisco ISE and Exchange ActiveSync Proxy connectivity in BES12 V12.4
• BES12 Cloud now supports Windows 10, Private app management, and ActiveSync Gatekeeping.
• A suite of updates to BBM Protected including Team Messaging, priority messaging, delivered and read notifications in multi-person chats, and enhanced IT administrator policies.
• WatchDox is now fully integrated with the BES12 management console, with enhanced mobile file editing/creation and better eDiscovery. A version of WatchDox integrated with Good Dynamics containerization is also available in the Good Marketplace.

This is only the first stage of our journey to integrate two of the richest EMM portfolios on the market. Moving forward, you’ll hear more about additional points of integration throughout the year. By incorporating Good Technology’s powerful suite of apps into our own, we’ll equip organizations with the capacity to better handle sensitive data, enable mobility, and protect employee privacy.

The story is just beginning.  Hang on to your socks! And to learn more about the new Good Secure EMM Suites we announced today, sign up for our Feb. 4 webinar.

BBM Update: Introducing PayPal Integration, The BBM Sticker Club, Screenshot Notification and so much more!

I’m pleased to announce that BBM has been updated with enhanced features for Android, iOS and BlackBerry 10 users.

The new Sticker club, available as a subscription from the BBM Shop, gives BBM Users access to 100 stickers that they can use right away, plus the many that are added regularly! In addition, Android users have joined iOS and BlackBerry users with the ability to rearrange their favorite sticker packs.

Since the external beta of PayPal integration with BBM, we’ve been so excited for the launch of this partnership!

We’re offering a solution to those of you who are splitting the dinner bill, pitching in for a gift, or paying back a friend for that time you forgot your wallet.

With BBM’s integration with PayPal, sending money is now made simple. Just connect your PayPal account to your BBM account & start sending money. It’s that easy. If you don’t see the option immediately, stay tuned as the integration becomes available in additional countries soon.

We’re not done yet – the PayPal partnership is just one of many exciting developments on the way for mobile payments. Stay tuned as we add support for additional finance and banking partners, all wrapped up with world-class BlackBerry security standards.

But wait, there’s more!

BBM is also expanding to new platforms: Apple Watch and iOS 9. BBM users can now reply to their BBM messages right from their wrist by leveraging the BBM Apple watch integration. Send quick replies in an instant to stay on top of your conversations.

Here’s the full list of what’s new in this latest release of BBM:

• Subscribe to the BBM Sticker Club to gain access to hundreds of sticker packs, with new additions provided regularly
• Android users can re-order sticker packs to position favorites near the top for quick access.
• Send money to BBM contacts within your BBM conversations using PayPal account integration
• Another one for Android: Customize the font size in your BBM conversations, with pinch-to-zoom functionality
• iOS 9 support with Quick Reply support
• Apple Watch support
• iOS users can now send videos as attachments within conversations.
• View, like, and comment on group pictures and other events from within BBM Feeds.
• Any screenshots taken during a BBM Private Chat will produce an in-chat notification

Get started by updating your BBM app in Google Play, the App Store or BlackBerry World today.

The Evolution of BBM Stickers and Brands….

With more than 2 Billion stickers sent and received in August alone, it’s clear that stickers are a big part of our BBM experience, as we have tens of millions of users who engage with stickers on a weekly basis and they keep coming back for more. In fact, we have over 240 million visits to our BBM Shop as well, so if it’s not stickers users are grabbing, instead they are checking out our marketplace or jumping onto some of our subscriptions services such as our recent Privacy and Control package.

This desire for more content has driven us to continue to deploy new sticker packs rapidly and today we have more than 500 sticker packs available totaling over 6,000 individual stickers.

The demand for more sticker content is being fuelled by a powerful intersection between our consumers’ desire for relevant content, and also brand interest in engaging with BBM users in a new medium.

These interests and desires led us to develop the Sponsored Sticker Pack. Put simply, leading brands can leverage the BBM Shop’s sticker platform and generate billions of impressions. Brands create a sticker pack and in exchange for a placement fee can merchandise the sticker pack throughout the BBM Shop.

This compelling proposition drives engagement and brand impressions through:

• Visibility – We can merchandise sticker packs to our global base of greater than 60 million BBM Shop users or a subset targeted by region;
• Virality – Stickers are by their very nature a viral media; a single sticker pack download originating from the Shop can often trigger thousands of downloads through in chat discovery and sharing;
• Longevity – Once downloaded users keep their sticker packs provided the stickers are compelling and useful. This can generate long term sustained usage and substantial impressions for the brand;
• Being Free! – BBM users are accustomed to most sticker packs being Paid – usually $1.99. When we launch a free Sponsored Sticker pack, we often see 1000x the number of downloads!

Seeing the success on the number of impressions generated from these Sponsored Sticker packs, several brands then asked us for a way to leverage their sticker packs to drive action; whether it be completing a purchase online or delivering a coupon for a special offer – hence we developed the “Sticker Pack with Link” feature. So now it’s possible to insert a customized link into each sticker within a pack and link to a brand’s website, mobile app or almost anything else!

A great example was Rakuten, an online retailer in Indonesia which recently launched stickers with links with the goal of driving brand impressions and clicks back to the Rakuten online storefront…the results speak for themselves

Total Impressions: +60M

Sticker Pack Downloads: +1.6M

Sticker Sends: +30M

Sticker Receives: +30M

Clicks to Rakuten: +1M

So keep checking back to the BBM Shop for more exciting new sticker packs, and, if you are a brand interested in leveraging this exciting social and viral opportunity, please contact us at stickers@blackberry.com

10 years of BBM

BlackBerry Principal Architect and main creator of BBM, Gary Klassen

Where were you on August 1, 2005?

Gary Klassen knows where he was. The man who “invented” BBM was sitting at his desk, nervously twirling his thumbs as hundreds of people started downloading and using BlackBerry Messenger version 1.0 for the very first time.

Originally planned to be included as part of the BES 4.1 release, BlackBerry Messenger (which wouldn’t be known formally as BBM until 5 years later) got a bit of a head start, as employees began to share the beta internally at Research In Motion (now BlackBerry). As a result, BlackBerry Messenger had a thriving community of users, before it was even released.

Only a handful of people were involved in the first version of BBM, which was originally called QuickMessenger until Jeremy Kettle coined the term BBM – BlackBerry Messenger – during an early meeting.

The name stuck (and was eventually added to the English Collins Dictionary in 2012).

[A map of the first BBM Social Graph at BlackBerry – courtesy of Gary Klassen]

Jonathan Nobles was the first product manager for BBM in 2005. When I told him it was the 10^th Anniversary of BBM he could hardly believe it.

“We were experimenting with various instant messaging ideas. We discovered that if we took the existing PIN to PIN solution, and wrapped it in a nice GUI (Graphical user interface), we had a great product”.

Gary confirmed this. “PIN to PIN [messaging] always had D’s and R’s,” he said, referring to status updates showing when messages were Delivered and Read by users, “but they weren’t on by default”. Turning those features on in BBM created a pioneering sense of real-time presence that’s now standard for many instant messaging applications.

“BBM was the first form of text communication that was instant, cross-carrier, and mobile, in a time when people were still attached to their PCs,” says Klassen, who still invents things as a principal architect at BlackBerry. “With desktop IM’s, you could show up as ‘online’, but you might not be at your computer. BBM was the first to be always with you, and you were truly always ‘online’.”

The speed with which messages were sent, delivered and read was matched only by the speed at which BBM grew. BlackBerry Messenger was one of the first over-the-air (OTA) apps available for BlackBerry Smartphones.

Low cost + low bandwidth + instant delivery was a recipe for success that continues to this day.

Indeed, BBM has grown incredibly: it’s also a social media platform, a medium for advertising, gaming and m-commerce, and the foundation of business-collaboration and highly-secure messaging services.

Notice anything different? BBM 1.0 (above) used A’s instead of R’s (to indicate ‘Read’) because the designer interpreted the wireframe incorrectly. This was quickly fixed. Our overall user interface has evolved a bit since then, too (below).

 

bbm ui 2015

At its heart, BBM remains an excellent way to communicate, which is why users remain incredibly loyal.

BBM is celebrating 10 years of connecting people globally and I want to hear your story. Do you remember when you first started using BBM? (Bonus points if you can remember who your first contact was!)

BBM 2.0 Now Available for Windows Phone Users

Great news! Starting today, Windows Phone users are getting several new BBM features, offering them new ways to chat and share with more privacy and control over their communications.

The Windows Phone BBM update introduces privacy and control features including timed messages and message retraction. Now with access to the BBM Shop, users can liven up their Windows Phone BBM chats by purchasing and using BBM Stickers.

Don and I sat down to chat about all that BBM 2.0 has to offer. Check out the videos for the details:

BBM Shop with Stickers

Users can now chat with larger, bolder and more expressive images than emoticons. It makes the BBM experience more engaging and fun. You can also personalize your chats with colleagues, family, friends, peers and partners.

Timed Messages:

By setting a timer, you can control how long your contacts can view the BBM messages and pictures you share with them. The message is hidden until the recipient touches and holds on the chat. Then, once the timer has expired (or if the recipient takes their finger off the screen), the message is no longer visible. The user will receive a notification if BBM detects that the recipient has taken a screenshot of the image or message.

Message Retraction:

Users can now retract their message to remove it from their BBM chat, either before it has been read by the recipient or after it has been read so that it is no longer visible within the BBM chat.

Update your BBM today and let us know what you think of BBM 2.0 for Windows Phone in the comments.

New BBM Beta: Ultra-Private, Yours to Control

Privacy and control. At BBM, we recognize that these two ideas are more important today than ever before for users of IM apps. People are looking for simple ways to help guard against their messages getting in to the wrong hands and being seen by anyone other than the intended recipient. There are lots of scenarios out there, from someone picking up the sender’s phone and snooping around, to the recipient showing a message or picture to others around them, or maybe those times when a message is sent to someone by mistake. No matter how you look at it, no one likes being out of control.

Here at BBM, we believe that when people can chat and share with privacy and control, they are able to communicate with more discretion and freedom. That’s why today, we’re excited to give you a preview of two incredible new premium features coming to BBM in our next release.  With these new features, what you share is yours to control  – even once it’s left your phone.

Timed Messages

By setting a timer you can control how long messages and pictures you share with contacts can be viewed within BBM. Setting the timer is super easy: Before you send your message or picture, you just tap on the timer icon next to the text bar and choose a length of time you want the recipient to be able to view that message. The message is hidden until the recipient touches and holds on the chat. Then, once the timer has expired (or if the recipient takes their finger off the screen), the message is no longer visible. What I love about the timer is that I can move seamlessly between timed messages and normal messages in a single chat depending on what I’m sending. Oh, and don’t get any smart ideas about screen shots…if a screen shot is detected, the sender is notified.

Message Retraction

We’ve all been there, that time when you sent a message to the wrong person. Wouldn’t it be great if you could recall that message before they see it? Or maybe you’ve sent a piece of sensitive info to a contact – like your credit card number so they can buy some concert tix for you – and you don’t want that information to remain in the BBM chat it… Well, now you can retract your message to remove it from your BBM chat. Just touch and hold on the message you want to retract and choose ‘retract message’ from the menu. This one works with messages, not pictures, and is only available in one-to-one chats.

If you want to see these new premium features in action check out this video demo.  We’re testing these now in a limited beta for users on Android and BlackBerry 10. Timer and Retract will be available in the 2.5 release of BBM for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry 10 coming very, very soon.

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Note:  While these features are designed to remove the message or picture the recipient’s BBM chat view, they do not prevent recipients from capturing an image of the content by taking a screenshot or using an image capture device.  Retracting a message after it has been read by the recipient will remove the message from the BBM chat view, but will not affect copies of the message that the recipient may have made prior to the message being retracted.

BBM Adds Two New Payment Capabilities

I’m just back from Jakarta, Indonesia, where we announced two new payment capabilities inside BBM. Firstly, an enhanced BBM Money service in Indonesia. Second is integration with TransferTo, an international airtime remittance provider, which will allow you to gift mobile airtime minutes to your BBM Contacts globally.

When it originally launched years ago, BBM was all about connecting people through instant messaging. Now it has expanded to also connect people with brands and retailers. As we continue to build and improve the platform, we’re working toward making BBM into a thriving marketplace for all kinds of commerce.

I go into all the details about both services in my full post over at the Business Blog, but here’s the executive summary.

TransferTo Integration: Send Airtime Internationally

This new integration lets you give prepaid mobile credit to people in your BBM Contacts list, across town or across a border. As almost 80% of mobile users have prepaid accounts, this feature will make it easier to make small value transfers between friends and family, and stay in touch.

BBM Money: P2P Transfers, Mobile Top-Up, and Bill Pay

We’ve been piloting the BBM Money mobile wallet service for the last year on BlackBerry devices. In Jakarta we announced BBM Money will be available by early next year for BBM users on Android and iPhone, in addition to BlackBerry smartphones. The service will allow people to send money to their BBM Contacts, top up mobile airtime accounts, and pay bills, online and at participating retailers. Built by  Monitise Indonesia and issued and managed by PermataBank‎, BBM Money leverages BlackBerry’s legacy in security and privacy, using passcodes and encryption to achieve bank-grade security for a variety of financial transactions.

We’ve gained great insights into the Indonesia marketplace during the pilot service we launched in early 2013, and from next year, will make available an expanded version available to anyone using an Android or iOS device, or a BlackBerry smartphone—no matter which bank they use (if they have a bank). Read more about the features over at the Business Blog.

Indonesia is really the perfect marketplace for BBM Money, for many reasons. It’s the biggest BBM market globally—and it’s growing at a rate of 150% annually. BlackBerry has a very strong brand there—and it shows in a number of awards we’ve won over the past year. It’s not just Indonesian consumers that love BlackBerry and BBM either. Many brands have started their own BBM Channels as a way to connect with their customers, including Coca-Cola, Qoo10, and Garuda Indonesia airline.

Beyond popularity, the Indonesian market is primed for mobile payments. It’s still largely a cash-based economy, and much of the population lacks bank accounts and credit cards. All of that is happening in the world’s fourth largest country by population, which has the second fastest rate of ecommerce growth in the world, behind only China.

Combine all that with BlackBerry’s reputation for mobile security and privacy, and you start to see that mobile payments make perfect sense, especially there, especially now. Get the full story at the Business Blog.

Engage your Fans and Followers with the BBM Channels App for Hootsuite

Below is a guest post from our new partners at Hootsuite.

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Hootsuite is excited to announce an exclusive integration with BBM Channels, a messaging platform for conversations between people, brands and communities. Built on the cross-platform BBM instant messaging service, BBM Channels enables brands to engage directly with mobile audiences across BlackBerry, iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone.

Mobile messaging apps are becoming increasingly popular for group chat, photo sharing, and video conversations, so it’s no surprise that brands are looking for ways to engage with their fans and followers in the messaging apps they use every day. Now with the BBM Channels app for Hootsuite, social media, community, and marketing managers can engage with BBM Channels communities in the Hootsuite dashboard alongside their social networks. This allows them to save time, work more efficiently, and drive greater community engagement. Publish messages and photos, interact with your followers, and moderate user content on as many BBM Channels as you like—all within Hootsuite.

The app is free for all Hootsuite users and BBM Channel owners, and is now available in the Hootsuite App Directory.

Install Now

Share social posts to your Channel and vice versa

The BBM Channels app for Hootsuite makes it easy to incorporate your BBM Channel strategy into your overall social media initiatives. You’re now able to share posts from Twitter and Facebook directly to your BBM Channel with just a few clicks, so you can always keep your Channel up-to-date with the most immersive content and conversations. Alternatively, when a particular photo or update creates a high volume of replies and likes within your BBM Channel community, you can quickly re-post the content on Twitter or Facebook to further amplify the message and drive engagement on those networks as well.

“Both social media and messaging channels have been a powerful tool for FC Barcelona to engage with our large active global fan base. By bringing together Hootsuite and BBM Channels, FC Barcelona team now has a way to bring their Channels content into their social media workflow to expand the reach of brand and user-generated content. The ability to be more social as an organization is integral for our success, and we expect nothing less.” —Dídac Lee, FC Barcelona Board Member, Technology Area Director

Moderate user content

Comments from subscribers can bring your BBM Channel community to life, but monitoring comments for offensive or inappropriate content can be time consuming. The BBM Channels app for Hootsuite allows you to moderate user content more efficiently by bringing it into your Hootsuite dashboard with your other social networks. You can filter a BBM Channel stream to display Pending Content or Flagged Content, and then quickly accept or delete comments.

Track engagement and follower growth

As you grow your BBM Channel, it’s vital to know how your subscribers are interacting with your content. With the BBM Channels app for Hootsuite, you can see at a glance how many visits are converting to likes, comments, and reads, and whether your daily engagement rates are increasing.

The channel analytics also reveal which sources are driving your subscriber growth, so you can optimize your paid and organic acquisition strategies to focus on the best methods. In addition, you can look beyond overall subscriber numbers to see how many people are joining and leaving your Channel community each day. With this data, you’ll be able to optimize not only for subscriber acquisition, but retention, as well.

Manage your Channel

Take control of your BBM Channel from the convenience of your Hootsuite dashboard. You can edit your channel settings to create the best experience for yourself and your community. For example, you can update your Channel description or picture to promote a new campaign, or temporarily disable comments to protect your audience.

Integrate your BBM Channels with your social strategy to build deeper relationships with your mobile followers. Install the app today to get started!

How BBM Channels Are Leading the Convergence of Social and Mobile Media

Mobile and social media are changing many things, including mass marketing. Advertisers are quickly abandoning TV, radio and print publications in favour of the more precise targeting, better performance and lower costs of mobile and social media.

BBM Channels is a social networking feature inside BBM that combines the best of mobile and social in one great feature.

Like a Facebook page or Tumblr blog, a BBM Channel is a place to post messages and pictures, and also interact with people. Because it lives inside BBM, Channels is all about facilitating conversations. Just like BBM chats help you connect with friends, family and colleagues, Channels can help you connect with brands you like and communities that share your interests.

BBM makes it easy to do both things—and also keep them in their own separate corners.

I’ve got a post over at the Business Blog that explains what Channels are all about, both from a how-you-use it perspective, and a why-its-good-for-business perspective.

The gist is that as we work to improve BBM, two things are most important. First, the app has to remain easy and satisfying to use. Right now, we’re looking good. We know that because people who use BBM love it: 72% of them use it every day. That metric is our daily active user (DAU) rate, an industry standard, and it beats the DAU of both WhatsApp and Facebook. Obviously, that’s valuable for us, for users, for communities, and for advertisers.

Second, BBM is only as useful as the number of people and companies that use it. The more, the better. Channels are helping to boost BBM’s “network effect” by bringing more people and businesses to the platform, giving everyone more tools, more features, more ways to connect, and more reasons to stick around.

Tap into your BBM Channels today to see the range of things going on. There are over 900,000 Channels, about everything under the sun: sports teams, gaming communities, magazines that promote content, retailers offering deals, and lots more. Subscribe to the channels you like, and you’ll see their updates in your Feeds. You can even start one of your own about your family, friends, work, hobbies, or whatever floats your boat. Once you publish it, people who enjoy the same things you do can connect to receive your updates.

Today, it’s all about sharing information, but in the near future, Channels should be able to take you one step further, directly to transactions. Say you’re subscribed to the Amazon channel, which offers up a daily deal that you see in your Feeds. Let’s say the deal is a great price on a package of snorkelling equipment. And you need some for your upcoming vacation to the Great Barrier Reef. You simply click the post, and it takes you to a page with more information where you can examine the merchandise, and then redeem the offer and buy the product with one click — just like you can with sticker packs at the BBM Shop (also inside your BBM).

Exciting stuff. Read all about it over at the business blog.