Indosat releases IM3 Buzz, Indosat’s own chat app, in the event of “Serunya Liburan Bareng IM3 Seru Anti Galau” launching at Urban Kitchen, Senayan City, Jakarta last Monday. Reported by Tekno Kompas, Indosat Division Head Youth Segment, M Andre Reinaldy claims that the IM3 Buzz app is more sophisticated than WhatsApp and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM).
Although its name is IM3 Buzz, this app can be enjoyed by all Indosat users using smartphone or featured phone. Android, BlackBerry and iPhone users can use the IM3 Buzz app, while featured phone user can visit www.im3buzz.com or using the J2ME based app.
Other than equipped with standard chat app feature such as chatting, group and sending file, IM3 Buzz app also has the audio chat and video chat features. These features distinguish IM3 Buzz with WhatsApp and BBM.
As the promotion, Indosat frees the internet fee for the usage of this app until June 30. After that, this app’s charge is according to the internet package used.
Although the description in the Indosat’s website says that the IM3 Buzz app is available for download from www.indosat.com/im3buzz, the fact is by the time this article is written, the page is inaccessible and only redirected to Indosat’s front page.
Previously, other than WhatsApp and BBM, there are a couple of chat app circulating in Indonesia like KakaoTalk and Line. KakaoTalk and Line also have audio chat feature, so IM3 Buzz feature wins, when compared with the two apps, over the video chat feature, which is relatively not that popular in Indonesia.
It seems that IM3 Buzz’s main competitor is the social app mig33 on the level of featured phone. Ironically, mig33 once cooperated exclusively with Indosat so it’s safe to say that Indosat is competing with an app that grows under it. In addition to the support of a large community, mig33 also has highlighted features such as social game and miniblog.
So, is IM3 Buzz able to acquire the market of chat app in Indonesia? It seems that the task needs more than just a month free of charge promotion.