WhatsApp率軍圍城 黑莓BBM將何去何從

Facebook's $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp is a reminder about the uncertain fate of another messaging application: BlackBerry's BBM.

Facebook Inc.以190億美元收購WhatsApp，讓人想起了另一款通訊應用懸而未決的命運：黑莓(BlackBerry Ltd.)的BBM。

For years, BBM was one of the most Popular instant-messaging tools in several countries, particularly in the developing world. In fast-growing countries like Indonesia and Nigeria, BBM dominated the messaging landscape. Pop stars wrote songs about it.

多年來BBM在一些國家（尤其是發展中國家）一直是最受歡迎的即時通訊工具之一，在印度尼西亞、尼日利亞等快速增長的國家中稱雄於通訊軟件版圖，甚至有流行歌手爲其寫歌譜曲。

But other messaging apps have since overtaken BBM. WhatsApp, for instance, has 450 million monthly active users and is adding a million new users a day, according to the company. BBM has around 80 million monthly actives users, about half of whom don't use the app on BlackBerry's smartphones. (In 2012, there were 55 million monthly active BBM users on BlackBerry devices).

但隨後其他一些通訊應用取代了BBM的地位。據WhatsApp稱，公司每月活躍用戶達4.5億，並且用戶數還在以每天100萬的速度增長。而BBM每月活躍用戶約8,000萬，其中約一半用戶不在黑莓的智能手機上使用這款應用（2012年每月全球約有5,500萬活躍用戶在黑莓設備上使用BBM）。

Still, even as BlackBerry's core smartphone business was crumbling, BBM was considered a bright spot. This past summer, BlackBerry executives considered spinning off BBM into into its own company. Internally, executives referred to the unit as BBM Inc. The messaging app's prospects routinely came up in news about possible BlackBerry buyers.

儘管黑莓的智能手機核心業務處於困境，BBM卻仍被視爲該公司業務的一個亮點。黑莓高層曾在去年夏天考慮將BBM剝離爲獨立子公司，他們在公司內部將其稱作BBM Inc.。每當有黑莓潛在買家的消息出現，這一通訊應用的前景也都會照例被提及。

Now that WhatsApp has Facebook's marketing might behind it, does BBM stand a chance?

如今WhatsApp背後有着Facebook強大的營銷實力，BBM還有翻身的希望嗎？

It's unclear how BlackBerry plans to catch up to other messaging apps like WhatsApp, or whether it will take BBM in a different direction entirely.

黑莓BBM打算如何追趕上WhatsApp這樣的通訊應用？亦或它是否將朝着一個全然不同的方向發展？這些都不得而知。

This fall, after years of internal deliberation and as it became clear that sales of its devices had collapsed, BlackBerry made BBM available to iPhone and Android users. That led to an early surge of downloads, but numbers have tapered off since. Adding to this uncertainty, BlackBerry's executive in charge of BBM, Andrew Bocking, left earlier this month.

經過數年的深思熟慮，伴隨着設備銷量大幅下滑成爲明確問題，黑莓終於在去年秋天推出了iPhone版和安卓(Android)版的BBM應用。然而其下載量在經歷了最初的大幅增長後便逐漸減少。本月早些時候，負責BBM業務的黑莓高管博金(Andrew Bocking)離開了公司，給BBM的未來又添了一層不確定性。

The man now in charge of BBM, John Sims, runs the company's enterprise business. That might provide one possible road for BBM. John Chen, BlackBerry's chief executive, has said he plans to make BBM a more enterprise-focused messaging tool, though he hasn't provided any details about how he plans to do this.

如今負責BBM業務的西姆斯(John Sims)管理着公司的企業業務，這或許爲BBM鋪開了另一條潛在發展道路。黑莓首席執行長程守宗(John Chen)曾表示他計劃將BBM打造成爲一個更側重企業服務的通訊工具，不過他並未給出其計劃的具體內容。

Whatever BBM's future, investors think there's an upside for BlackBerry. After the Facebook-WhatsApp deal was announced, shares of BlackBerry jumped as much as 8% in after hours trading.

先不管BBM的未來如何，反正投資者是在看好黑莓。在Facebook宣佈收購WhatsApp後，黑莓股價在盤後交易時段一度躍升8%。