After a year of rumors and the departure of both co-founders, it has been confirmed that the WhatsApp will have announcements officially. Vice President Chris Daniels today confirmed to Outlook India that the days of an ad-free platform are numbered: 3v5z
“We will place ments in the section 'Status'. This will be the main monetization mode for the app, as well as an opportunity for businesses to reach people on WhatsApp.”
the section 'Status' is a version of Instagram Stories inside WhatsApp, itself copied from the app Snapchat. In it, s can share texts, photos, videos and GIFs that disappear 24 hours after posting.
The news was already expected. Brian Acton, co-founder of the original app, has been very vocal about his distaste for the app's monetization plans. Facebook, but without achieving any change in the strategy of Mark Zuckerberg's company in this regard.
Other times 4i605
In the past, in 2012, the company published a ionate blog titled: “Why We Don’t Sell Ads”. In it, it was said that when advertising is involved “you are the , the product”. The co-founders even cited one of the film's mantras Fight Club (Fight Club, 1999):
“Advertising makes us want cars and clothes, work at what we hate, so we can buy things we don’t need.”
But the WhatsApp was sold to Facebook in 2014 for around $19 billion, and after that, co-founders who were still in the making found themselves struggling to maintain that original vision.
In September of that year, Acton told the American magazine Forbes: “At the end of the day, I sold my company. I sold my s' privacy for greater benefit. I made a choice and a commitment. I live with it every day.” The privacy issues he refers to include pressure from the Facebook to allow it to access the phone numbers of s of the WhatsApp and post targeted ads using customer data.
Goodbye WhatsApp 4il1c
Many forum s Reddit were unhappy with the change and said they were considering switching to a new secure messaging service such as Signal or the Telegram – although they are much less popular than the WhatsApp, which has more than 1,5 billion s globally.
Regardless, the decision was made. While Daniels hasn't set a timeline for when ads will run, reports have suggested that targeted ads will come to the platform starting in 2019.
Source: Outlook India.
