BlackBerry finds partner in Indonesia’s Emtek

An Indonesian media conglomerate on Monday announced a partnership with BlackBerry in which it will help the Canadian company bring more functionality to its BBM messaging app.

Elang Mahkota Teknologi, known as the Emtek Group, owns two national TV stations, online news portals and production houses. It also has invested in numerous startups. The partnership will enable Emtek to bring these properties’ content to BBM users, as well as develop new BBM applications and services through a licensing agreement. The content maker will pay BlackBerry an estimated $207 million in licensing fees over six years through a Singapore subsidiary.

“We wanted to continue to offer our users even more with the most content-rich media and new services such as e-commerce, video, music and games,” said John Chen, BlackBerry’s executive chairman and CEO.

The deal follows a trend in which messaging apps are morphing into platforms that offer a range of services. BBM has 60 million monthly active users in Indonesia, more than anywhere else in the world. Currently, the app has about 90 million monthly active users around the world.

KMK Online, an Emtek digital content maker, will set up an office in Toronto so it can work closely with BlackBerry.

Emtek has been stepping up efforts to generate revenue from its content via online platforms. In 2015, the company consolidated its production and distribution divisions. Earlier this year, it invested in Malaysia-based online video streaming service iFlix, which later launched services in Indonesia.

“We see significant opportunity to grow the consumer BBM business globally and are excited to invest in research and development to further advance BBM,” Emtek CEO Alvin Sariaatmadja said in a press release.

BlackBerry’s handset business has found itself left behind in the smartphone age and is now trying to focus on software.