[blink333]

Now that it's cross platform, how about we share some ideas on how BB can monetize it. I have a few:

-Expand BBM money worldwide. I think it's a great concept, and I'd be curious to know how it's doing since the pilot launch in Indonesia.
-Allow users to opt-in on some type of Groupon alerts. Could go in conjunction with the idea below.
-Launch a partnership with Google that would data mine your BBM chats (like they do with Gmail) and send you targeted advertising. For example, if you're chatting with your friends about an upcoming trip to Thailand, you could be offered targeted ads about tours in Bangkok.It would probably be cheaper to partner / license the technology from Google than developing it in-house. Yes, there are privacy concerns, but if Gmail is #1, clearly the concerns are not hurting them.
-Sell upgraded emoticon packages. Some people love using them, and maybe $1 for a pack of 20 wouldn't be a bad price.
-Be able to gift (both virtually and offline). Imagine you're chatting with someone and you click on the menu and select "Send" and then you get a menu of different type of gifts you can send them, like flowers or candy or something. Again, they could partner with Amazon or the like.
-Have an enterprise version with upgraded features that you charge for.

I'm just trying to think of ways they can gain some revenue, because if it turns out to be heavily downloaded, I am sure it will be very sticky. People spend hours a day on BBM, more than they probably spend on Facebook and Twitter, and that is very valuable.

[Peevish]

BBM Money is the way to go. Charge like .02 cents for each transaction.

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[robin11]

BBM is not cross platform yet and may never be given Blackberry's recent execution history. There are only about 60 million current users and the downward sales spiral suggests that number will drop.....

[Omnitech]

-Launch a partnership with Google that would data mine your BBM chats (like they do with Gmail) and send you targeted advertising. For example, if you're chatting with your friends about an upcoming trip to Thailand, you could be offered targeted ads about tours in Bangkok.It would probably be cheaper to partner / license the technology from Google than developing it in-house. Yes, there are privacy concerns, but if Gmail is #1, clearly the concerns are not hurting them.

Such a feature would cause me to permanently abandon BBM.

[Dave79]

My suggestion to monetize would be to start release it to iOS and Android.

[heymaggie]

Yeah, I was just thinking this weekend, as I was trying to see of a BBM text would go through, that Blackberry should try to take on Visa, MasterCard and PayPal in addition to Apple, Google, and Microsoft (Skype). Why not?

[rthonpm]

Such a feature would cause me to permanently abandon BBM.

Have to agree. It's bad enough that Google mines your data, but people don't understand that there is no such thing as a free lunch so to speak...