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Facebook's $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp is a reminder about the uncertain fate of another messaging application: BlackBerry's BBM.
Facebook Inc.以190亿美元收购WhatsApp，让人想起了另一款通讯应用悬而未决的命运：黑莓(BlackBerry Ltd.)的BBM。
For years, BBM was one of the most popular instant-messaging tools in several countries, particularly in the developing world. In fast-growing countries like Indonesia and Nigeria, BBM dominated the messaging landscape. Pop stars wrote songs about it.
多年来BBM在一些国家（尤其是发展中国家）一直是最受欢迎的即时通讯工具之一，在印度尼西亚、尼日利亚等快速增长的国家中称雄于通讯软件版图，甚至有流行歌手为其写歌谱曲。
But other messaging apps have since overtaken BBM. WhatsApp, for instance, has 450 million monthly active users and is adding a million new users a day, according to the company. BBM has around 80 million monthly actives users, about half of whom don't use the app on BlackBerry's smartphones. (In 2012, there were 55 million monthly active BBM users on BlackBerry devices).
但随后其他一些通讯应用取代了BBM的地位。据WhatsApp称，公司每月活跃用户达4.5亿，并且用户数还在以每天100万的速度增长。而BBM每月活跃用户约8,000万，其中约一半用户不在黑莓的智能手机上使用这款应用（2012年每月全球约有5,500万活跃用户在黑莓设备上使用BBM）。
Still, even as BlackBerry's core smartphone business was crumbling, BBM was considered a bright spot. This past summer, BlackBerry executives considered spinning off BBM into into its own company. Internally, executives referred to the unit as BBM Inc. The messaging app's prospects routinely came up in news about possible BlackBerry buyers.
尽管黑莓的智能手机核心业务处于困境，BBM却仍被视为该公司业务的一个亮点。黑莓高层曾在去年夏天考虑将BBM剥离为独立子公司，他们在公司内部将其称作BBM Inc.。每当有黑莓潜在买家的消息出现，这一通讯应用的前景也都会照例被提及。
Now that WhatsApp has Facebook's marketing might behind it, does BBM stand a chance?
如今WhatsApp背后有着Facebook强大的营销实力，BBM还有翻身的希望吗？
It's unclear how BlackBerry plans to catch up to other messaging apps like WhatsApp, or whether it will take BBM in a different direction entirely.
黑莓BBM打算如何追赶上WhatsApp这样的通讯应用？亦或它是否将朝着一个全然不同的方向发展？这些都不得而知。
This fall, after years of internal deliberation and as it became clear that sales of its devices had collapsed, BlackBerry made BBM available to iPhone and Android users. That led to an early surge of downloads, but numbers have tapered off since. Adding to this uncertainty, BlackBerry's executive in charge of BBM, Andrew Bocking, left earlier this month.
经过数年的深思熟虑，伴随着设备销量大幅下滑成为明确问题，黑莓终于在去年秋天推出了iPhone版和安卓(Android)版的BBM应用。然而其下载量在经历了最初的大幅增长后便逐渐减少。本月早些时候，负责BBM业务的黑莓高管博金(Andrew Bocking)离开了公司，给BBM的未来又添了一层不确定性。
The man now in charge of BBM, John Sims, runs the company's enterprise business. That might provide one possible road for BBM. John Chen, BlackBerry's chief executive, has said he plans to make BBM a more enterprise-focused messaging tool, though he hasn't provided any details about how he plans to do this.
如今负责BBM业务的西姆斯(John Sims)管理着公司的企业业务，这或许为BBM铺开了另一条潜在发展道路。黑莓首席执行长程守宗(John Chen)曾表示他计划将BBM打造成为一个更侧重企业服务的通讯工具，不过他并未给出其计划的具体内容。
Whatever BBM's future, investors think there's an upside for BlackBerry. After the Facebook-WhatsApp deal was announced, shares of BlackBerry jumped as much as 8% in after hours trading.
先不管BBM的未来如何，反正投资者是在看好黑莓。在Facebook宣布收购WhatsApp后，黑莓股价在盘后交易时段一度跃升8%。
