BBM has more than 60 million monthly active customers, with more than 51 million people using BBM an average of 90 minutes per day, according to the company. BlackBery claims that BBM users send and receive more than 10 billion messages each day, nearly twice as many as other mobile messaging apps.
BlackBerry also announced BBM Channels, a new marketing platform within BBM that will allow customers to sign up to receive information from businesses, brands, celebrities and groups they are interested in. They can also engage with the channel, sharing information through comments or 'liking' posts. The Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team was the first such channel to be announced.
The Channels service is currently in beta for phones running BlackBerry 5.1-7 or 10. BlackBerry plans to add support for BBM Channels as well as voice and video chatting for iOS and Android later this year. If approved by Apple and Google, the BBM app will be available as a free download.
