During BlackBerry Live, CEO Thorsten Heins announced the availability of BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) for iOS and Android this coming summer. To use the free BBM service will require iOS 6 or Android 4.0. Aside from being multi platform, BlackBerry will also introduce BBM Channels which acts as special channels for brands and celebrities to interact with their fans.
With Telkomsel and Indosat announcing the development of their own messaging apps based on the GSMA-approved Rich Communication Services (RCS) standard, Indonesia is about to join countries like Singapore, South Korea, and Spain in rolling out an industry upgrade to the aging SMS. In the meantime, their customers are being drawn away and their revenues siphoned out by communication services companies.
Back in February the Indonesian telecommunications regulatory body (BRTI) announced plans to build and deploy its own messaging app platform to replace the aging SMS. The move was clearly an attempt to counter the onslaught of applications that substitute the core mobile communications services offered by mobile network companies. Indonesian telcos, Telkomsel and Indosat, have separately announced their plans to develop such an app.
Last year, when Multiply decided to leave the social world by closing down its social network platform, I wrote an article outlining what I observed about Multiply. I was actually a casual user, and since I began with UX it’s one of my favorite destinations for observing Indonesian Web 2.0 users.
Multiply’s announcement on Friday sent a shock across the e-commerce industry in Indonesia prompting questions of the market’s viability of sustaining such a business. Indonesia remains a massive potential for growth for Internet companies but it’s a delicate market to handle with characteristics not found on other, more established markets.
We were surprised on Friday by the announcement of Multiply’s closure as of 6 May 2013. With no warning, Multiply’s South Africa-based investors, Myriad International Holdings (MIH)/Naspers, decided to end Multiply (both in Indonesia and Internationally), and focus on increasing its investment in online advertising business (Tokobagus in Indonesia and Sulit in The Philippines). This adds to the list of failed marketplaces in Indonesia following Rakuten and Plasa.
