Say Goodbye to BBM forever
CAPE TOWN – Emtek, a media company that Blackberry formed a partnership with to help expand the consumer BBM business announced that it will be shutting down Blackberry messenger (BBM) on the 31st of May.
First launched in August 2005, BlackBerry Messenger was launched on 1 August 2005 and initially only worked on BlackBerry devices.
This eventually changed when it was released on iOS and Android in October 2013 after Blackberry lost market share to other messaging platforms.
The company said in a statement: "Today we're announcing that we will be closing BBM consumer service on 31 May 2019. Three years ago, we set out to reinvigorate BBM consumer service, one of the most loved instant messaging applications, as a cross-platform service where users can not only chat and share life experiences but also consume content and use payment services.
We poured our hearts into making this a reality, and we are proud of what we have built to date. The technology industry, however, is very fluid, and in spite of our substantial efforts, users have moved on to other platforms, while new users proved difficult to sign on."
The company added that it paid enterprise edition of the service, called BBM Enterprise, will continue to operate and be developed by BlackBerry Limited.
Written by: Gabriella Steyn.
Guzzle Media
