New Service in Discover Enables Nigerians to Access Movie Show Times, View Trailers and Purchase Tickets All via BBM

Creative Media Works, operating as BBM, has launched Movie Tickets in Discover with partner, Nairabox. The service allows Nigerians to browse current movies playing in theatres, check show times, view movie trailers and purchase tickets - even days in advance – all without leaving the messaging app.

Digital tickets are increasing in popularity, especially among digitally-savvy youth. Going digital means users can skip the line, purchase tickets in advance, and transact in a streamlined, mobile-friendly experience with secured payment within BBM.

Nairabox, like all Nigerian BBM Discover partners, uses the Interswitch mobile checkout feature developed for BBM Messenger. First time users are only required to set up their account once with their debit card and they can immediately transact on other services on Discover such as Quickteller Airtime Top-Up, Money Transfer and Paycode (used for cardless ATM withdrawal).

BBM is one of the largest mobile messaging applications in the world. Since it was created in August 2005, BBM has evolved from a pure messaging application for communication (text and video) to a social ecosystem unifying chat, social, commerce and services including bill payment, top-up, vouchers/coupons, news, games, comics, video, shopping, travels, career and polls.

“Nigerians are very active mobile users, specifically for money and airtime transfers and messaging,” said Matthew Talbot, CEO of Creative Media Works, the company which operates and runs BBM globally. “Launching Movie Tickets is just the latest in a year-long effort to bring more mobile services to this market, which is one of our key markets worldwide. Digital tickets make going to movies and events so convenient, we’re sure that this will prove to be a very popular new feature.”

According to the Co-Founder and COO of Nairabox, Jay Chikezie, “The use of digital tickets is becoming a norm in Nigeria; moviegoers now appreciate the ease associated with this process. In our first year of operation in 2016, Nigeria recorded more than 4 million tickets in sales at the box office and in 2017, we expect this number to grow beyond 10 million tickets. The Nigerian movie industry has entered an era where people hunger for cinematic experience. With this partnership, Nairabox and BBM are poised to put more cinema tickets in the hands of millions of people in Nigeria.”

Ends.