Making much of the community turn up their noses, Meta recently introduced a subscription on Facebook and Instagram to remove advertisements. But something has changed or will change too WhatsAppthe most popular instant messaging platform in the world?
Since it was acquired by Meta, WhatsApp has always been a completely free platform. Never a paid feature, never an advertisement. In this regard, the tech giant led by Mark Zuckerberg has stated that have no intention of placing announcements in chatsbut – at the same time – hinted that advertisements could appear in the future in other sections of the app.
WhatsApp: adverts may arrive, but not in chats
During an interview given to the newspaper Folha de S. Paulothe person responsible for WhatsApp Will Cathcart talked about the future of the app and how Meta manages to generate revenue through it. When asked specifically about chat ads, the executive stressed that the company has no intention of doing so. «We think this is not a fair model. When people open a chat, they don’t want to see advertising», explained Cathcart.
However, it is the manager himself who does not exclude the possibility that on WhatsApp, ads are shown in other sections of the platform. Yes, but in which ones exactly? It is not possible to provide a certain answer, but Cathcart believes that in the dei tab channels and in the section of States (the equivalent of stories on Instagram) could be inserted without bothering users too much.
As for the revenuesone of the largest sources of income (about 10 billion dollars every year) is WhatsApp Business, which grants special tools that large and small companies can take advantage of. In the future, however, revenue could increase with paid channelsa solution already offered by rival Telegram.
