BlackBerry Messenger had 80M daily active users before WhatsApp gained traction
Patrick Spence · 20VC: Sonos CEO Patrick Spence on His Biggest Lessons Building and Growing Blackberry, The Right Way to View Competition and Innovation Cycles & How To Make The Transition From COO To CEO Most Effectively · Feb 26, 2021 · at 5:32
Patrick Spence, former BlackBerry executive and current Sonos CEO, reflects on BlackBerry Messenger's user scale prior to his departure from Research In Motion.
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“BlackBerry Messenger at that point was eighty million daily active users. This is before WhatsApp had any traction, any other iMessage had much Attraction”
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“John McFarland stepped away completely. So unlike most founders and CEOs and large shareholders that maybe go onto the board or become executive chairman or something like that, John said, no, I've seen how this works and goes badly at many companies.”