BBM Messenger, Nairabox Bring Movie Tickets Service to Users in Nigeria

Creative Media Works, operating as BBM, has launched movie tickets in ‘Discover’ with partner, Nairabox. The service allows Nigerians to browse current movies playing in theatres, check show times, view movie trailers and purchase tickets - even days in advance – all without leaving the messaging app.

Digital tickets are increasing in popularity, especially among digitally-savvy youth. Going digital means users can skip the line, purchase tickets in advance, and transact in a streamlined, mobile-friendly experience with secured payment within BBM.

Nairabox, like all Nigerian BBM Discover partners, uses the Interswitch mobile checkout feature developed for BBM Messenger.

First time users are only required to set up their account once with their debit card and they can immediately transact on other services on Discover such as Quickteller Airtime Top-Up, Money Transfer and Paycode (used for cardless ATM withdrawal).

BBM is one of the largest mobile messaging applications in the world. Since it was created in August 2005, BBM has evolved from a pure messaging application for communication (text and video) to a social ecosystem unifying chat, social, commerce and services including bill payment, top-up, vouchers/coupons, news, games, comics, video, shopping, travels, career and polls.

“Nigerians are very active mobile users, specifically for money and airtime transfers and messaging,” said Matthew Talbot, CEO of Creative Media Works, the company which operates and runs BBM globally. “Launching Movie Tickets is just the latest in a year-long effort to bring more mobile services to this market, which is one of our key markets worldwide. Digital tickets make going to movies and events so convenient, we’re sure that this will prove to be a very popular new feature.”

According to Jay Chikezie, the co-founder and COO of Nairabox, “The use of digital tickets is becoming a norm in Nigeria; moviegoers now appreciate the ease associated with this process. In our first year of operation in 2016, Nigeria recorded more than 4 million tickets in sales at the box office and in 2017, we expect this number to grow beyond 10 million tickets. The Nigerian movie industry has entered an era where people hunger for cinematic experience. With this partnership, Nairabox and BBM are poised to put more cinema tickets in the hands of millions of people in Nigeria.”

On 27 June 2016, Creative Media Works, a division of PT Elang Mahkota Teknologi Tbk- one of Indonesia’s largest media, content and technology businesses - announced a long term strategic alliance with BlackBerry Limited to accelerate consumer BBM’s research and development in offering new and exciting features, services and content to the global consumer market.

As part of this strategy, BBM is making its APIs available to expedite the growth of partners and consumer services such as:

Content – music and video streaming, games, sports, news, celebrity blogs, horoscopes and more

Commerce – shopping, gifting and coupons/vouchers

Online to Offline Commerce – booking movies, travel, health services, real-estate or job postings

Finance – P2P payments, money transfer, mobile phone re-charge, and utilities billing

Creative Media Works now operates under the BBM banner as a stand-alone consumer focused business with teams operating from Waterloo, Mississauga, Ottawa, Singapore, Jakarta, UAE and South Africa. For more information, visit www.bbm.com.

Also, Nairabox is a social e-wallet application that allows user to buy airtime on the go, pay bills, donate to a charity and buy movie or event tickets at the convenience of your home or work place.