The Canadian-based smartphone manufacturer, BlackBerry, has chosen Indonesia as a testing ground for its first-ever mobile money service, BlackBerry Messenger Money (BBM Money), which premiered in the country on Tuesday.
In a pilot project conducted in cooperation with Bank Permata, users will be able to transfer money to their contacts over the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service, executives of both companies said in interviews. TA McCann, BlackBerry vice president for BlackBerry messenger and social communities, said that the company introduced BBM Money to extend the usage of BBM beyond chat.
He added that Indonesia was chosen to test out BBM Money as Indonesia “is our leading market for BBM”.“Indonesia has the largest and most active population of BBM users,” he said, adding that 60 million people worldwide utilized BBM.The percentage of active, daily BBM users in Indonesia had surpassed the global average of 60 percent, he said.
To access the service, people must first download the application from BlackBerry World. They then have to register, through the app, their name, phone number and password to obtain a BBM Money account.
