It’s only been about a week since BlackBerry launched on iOS and Android and already, the app has claimed over 20 million new sign ups (not just downloads), a nice jump since gaining 10 million users in the first 24 hours.
This brings BlackBerry Messenger nearly on par with competitor Kik Messenger. Back in August, Kik had surpassed BBM in active users, with BBM reporting 60 million uses at that time.
BBM made a massive jump to the top of the Google Play store in 37 countries, and to the top of the App Store in 107 countries.
“The power of BBM has always been the active, real conversations and interaction that our customers enjoy.”
“It is great to see so many people downloading BBM, but the true measurement for us is engagement – the connections being made and the conversations in which our BBM community engages,” Andrew Bocking, EVP of BBM at Blackberry said. “The power of BBM has always been the active, real conversations and interaction that our customers enjoy. From here on out, we will focus on active users of BBM and will no longer focus on simple download numbers.”
BBM voice and video services will be coming to the apps in “the coming months” as well, and it’s clear that BlackBerry is looking to steal a few users away from WhatsApp. It will be interesting to see just how popular the app is once it makes the jump to Windows Phone as well.
If you haven’t yet tried it for yourself, you can get the latest BBM version here.