BBM Stickers Added As BlackBerry Tries For IM Teen Favor

BlackBerry has added stickers to BBM, in a further attempt to push the instant messaging service among teen users. Featuring in the freshly-launched BBM Shop, the stockers will be available in virtual packs of 20-25, and feature both new characters as well as some from popular TV and movie franchises.

Exactly which those will include is yet to be confirmed, though BlackBerry has said that CosCat, Gilbert's Tales, and Bubble Bot will all get stickers at launch. Meanwhile, there'll be a free BBM sticker pack of existing BBM emoticons, only larger.

While it may seem a somewhat flippant addition to BBM, stickers do have the potential to be a significant revenue stream for messaging clients. Japanese company LINE, for instance, revealed back in 2012 that its users were spending almost $4m each month on sticker packs; the lure of that sort of revenue encouraged Facebook to launch stickers in its own chat platform last year.

BlackBerry is yet to confirm how much sticker packs will cost, or indeed how BBM users will access the BBM Shop in the app. In the last significant update, voice calls and BBM Channels were added to the iOS and Android clients, as well as a selection of new emoticons.

Meanwhile, BlackBerry itself got a surprise boost in its share price earlier this week on the tail of Facebook's $19bn acquisition of WhatsApp, forcing analysts to reconsider what value they placed on BBM as part of BlackBerry's overall business.