WhatsApp introduced Monday it’s going to start displaying advertisements in sure sections of the app, as mum or dad firm Meta seeks to generate new income from the platform’s huge consumer base.
Advertisements shall be proven solely within the app’s Updates tab, which is utilized by as many as 1.5 billion folks every day. However, they will not seem the place private chats are positioned, builders stated.
“The private messaging expertise on WhatsApp isn’t altering, and private messages, calls and statuses are end-to-end encrypted and can’t be used to point out advertisements,” WhatsApp stated in a weblog put up.
It’s an enormous change for the corporate, whose founders, Jan Koum and Brian Acto,n vowed to maintain the platform freed from advertisements once they created it in 2009.
Facebook bought WhatsApp in 2014 and the pair left a number of years later. Parent firm Meta Platforms Inc. has lengthy been making an attempt to generate income from WhatsApp.
WhatsApp stated advertisements shall be focused to customers based mostly on info like their age, the nation or metropolis the place they’re positioned, the language they’re utilizing, the channels they’re following within the app, and the way they’re interacting with the advertisements they see.
WhatsApp stated it will not use private messages, calls and teams {that a} consumer is a member of to focus on advertisements to the consumer.
It’s one in every of three promoting options that WhatsApp unveiled on Monday because it tries to monetize the app’s consumer base. Channels may also be capable of cost customers a month-to-month payment for subscriptions to allow them to get unique updates. And business homeowners will be capable of pay to advertise their channel’s visibility to new customers.
Most of Meta’s income comes from advertisements. In 2025, the Menlo Park, California-based firm’s income totaled $164.5 billion and $160.6 billion of it got here from promoting.
Source: www.dailysabah.com