Yesterday in the CrackBerry Forums, a member asked me to comment on the possible value of BBM, presumably as a standalone asset that BlackBerry can monetize on its own.
BBM is a mobile-only app with many purposes. First and foremost it’s an IM app, and arguably the best mobile IM app on the market. But it’s now also a video chat and voice chat app. And depending on what else BlackBerry adds to the mix, it could become a social network via BBM Channels.
One very common valuation metric is price per user, or value per user. Sometimes this value comes from an acquisition like Facebook buying Instragram, or eBay (and then Microsoft) buying Skype. Other times it is based on venture capital investments such as SnapChat’s rumored $800 million valuation. Another option for valuation is to look a publicly traded company (which we’ll do next).