Remember BlackBerry? The Canadian based company does not want to miss out on the mobile payment push created by other handset manufacturers and has announced that it will attempt to corner the Nigerian mobile money market with a new feature that lets users send money to each other through the company’s popular BBM messaging service.
In a blog post, Talbot, SVP, emerging solutions at BlackBerry touted that the mobile payment service can be used
“as simply as they transfer photos or files” and that the launch in Nigeria (through a partnership with domestic payment processor Interswitch) is not the only payment development for the company. In the same blog post, Talbot wrote, “we’re quickly establishing BBM as a leading messaging platform for mobile payments.”
It’s hard to believe being in mature markets where BlackBerry has virtually disappeared but the company has a sizable following in many emerging markets like Nigeria and Indonesia and so may be better positioned to launch mobile payment services there than other notable handset manufacturers. While only time will tell if the company is successful, it only further reinforces the diversification of the mobile payments landscape.
Overview by Tristan Hugo-Webb, Associate Director, Global Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
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