Is WhatsApp Replacing Blackberry Messenger As Indonesia’s Dominant Chat App?

At a Mobile Marketing Association forum event in Jakarta today, Indonesian telco XL Axiata released data that confirms WhatsApp is the most dominant chat app used by its domestic customers.

Based on slides presented at the event, WhatsApp accounts for nearly 70 percent of its customers’ daily chat app usage, while Line accounts for 39 percent, WeChat clocks in at 35 percent, and Blackberry Messenger (BBM) holds 9 percent.

Blackberry does not break down its sales by country, but data from IDC shows that Indonesia has been Blackberry’s biggest market outside the United States and Britain in recent years. CNBC says the rise of messaging services such as WhatsApp that are not confined to any single operating system, and the proliferation of cheap Android devices in countries like Indonesia have diluted the appeal of Blackberry as a brand.

Despite XL Axiata’s findings, a Nielsen study claims that BBM is still the number one chat app in Indonesia. The study shows that 79 percent of Indonesian smartphone users use BBM for about 23 minutes a day, whereas only 57 and 30 percent of Indonesian smartphone users use WhatsApp and Line for only six and five minutes a day, respectively.