Billaway and BBM Messenger Offers Consumers Access to Free Mobile Airtime via BBM Rewards

NEW YORK, June 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Billaway, a U.S based marketing technology company that enables mobile phone consumers the ability to earn rewards, today launches BBM Rewards with Creative Media Works, which operates as BBM Messenger, for consumers across Android and iOS platforms in the United States.

By selecting 'Rewards' in the Discover menu within BBM Messenger, users in the United States can now reduce the amount they pay for their mobile service simply by participating in surveys, entering sweepstakes or getting quotes, enabling them to earn additional mobile talk/text/data and redeeming money-saving offers. Users can also opt to earn gift cards as an alternative to earning additional mobile talk/text/data. These gift cards are redeemable at major U.S retailers*.

The underlying mobile cost reduction technology relies on Billaway's marketing platform, which can be integrated seamlessly into any mobile application. Since launching in South Africa two months ago, BBM Rewards has provided free airtime credits to over 10,000 registered users, and reduced their monthly mobile bill at an average of up to 80%.

BBM is one of the largest mobile messaging applications. In addition to offering free voice and video calls, BBM also allows users to send pictures, audio recordings, files, share real-time location on a map, as well as a wide selection of stickers. Since it was created in August 2005, BBM has evolved from a pure messaging application for communication (text and video) to a social eco-system unifying chat, social, commerce and services including bill payment, top-up, vouchers/coupons, news, games, comics, video, shopping, travels, career and polls.

"Mobile phones are a necessary expense in people's lives so being able to reduce the cost of this expense simply by sharing thoughts and opinions carries great appeal. We are receiving positive feedback and high interaction rates from users who are saving money on their monthly mobile bills," says Paul Harkins, CEO of Billaway. "BBM Rewards is the only service that allows consumers to reduce what they pay for mobile phone through sharing their opinions. It's all about saving money at the end of the day and doing something fun like taking surveys is an easy, cost free way to do this."

The survey responses gathered on BBM Rewards are also helping brands better connect with consumers, enabling them to conduct market research with a highly responsive user base. With millions of BBM users worldwide, brands that are launching new products and services will be able to gather audience insight that will better their customer experiences and ultimately, provide consumers with the products or services that they want.

According to Matthew Talbot, CEO of Creative Media Works, the company which operates and runs BBM globally, "We've been busy adding a ton of new services to the BBM Discover menu. All BBM Messenger users worldwide now have access to BBM News, which brings global and local news from leading news providers into BBM. We've also added BBM Games, where users can instantly access the catalogue of HTML5 games with no app download required. As we continuously evolve our services, we work with best-in-breed partners to provide our users with an enriched experience within BBM and giving them more compelling reasons to share BBM with their friends and family."

BBM Rewards is also available in Canada and South Africa, with further expansion to countries such as Malaysia, Nigeria, Singapore and the United Kingdom in the coming weeks.

*BBM is available on the App Store and Google Play for free download.

About BBM

On 27 June 2016, Creative Media Works, a division of PT Elang Mahkota Teknologi Tbk. (Emtek, IDX:EMTK) - 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.

Trademarks, including but not limited to BBM and BBM Design are the trademarks or registered trademarks of BlackBerry Limited, used under license, and the exclusive rights to such trademarks are expressly reserved.
Android is a trademark of Google Inc.
iOS is a registered trademark of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and certain other countries. iOS® is used under license by Apple Inc.
Windows® Windows is either a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries

About Billaway

Billaway is a cloud-based marketing technology platform that seamlessly enables the conversion of global currencies, earned by consumers through their everyday activities, directly into free mobile airtime and/or free mobile data. Billaway's turnkey integration connects mobile operators with advertisers and brands. This creates a more meaningful relationship with their customers. It also enables the consumer to save more on their bills without being exposed to offers, which have no relevance in their lives. The company is based in New York City and operates in multiple countries.  For more information, go to www.billawayglobal.com

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SOURCE Billaway