Meta Platforms is to begin displaying advertisements in WhatsApp, 11 years after buying the app whose original founders shunned adverts.
The advertising programme is to comprise several initiatives, including one that will allow businesses to display status messages that users can click on to start a chat.
The prompts, which are similar to existing click-to-message features on Facebook and Instagram, are to be displayed under the app’s Updates tab, which is separate from private conversations.
Status message ads
The Status feature where the ads will be displayed is used to share pictures, videos and text that disappears after 24 hours, similar to Instagram Stories.
Meta said that users who primarily use WhatsApp for messaging would not see the ads.
The contents of users messages, which remain encrypted, will not be used to tailor what users see, Meta said.
The company said ads would be personalised using basic information including a person’s country, city, device, language, what channels they follow and how they interact with other ads.
Users who have chosen to link their WhatsApp accounts to their Facebook or Instagram accounts will see more personalised ads.
The Updates tab was launched in June 2023 along with a Channels feature that allows people and organisations to send messages to their followers en masse rather than as a personalised conversation.
Those operating channels will also be able to pay to improve the visibility of their channels when a person searches for them via a directory, similar to paying for prioritisation in search results in Apple and Google’s app stores.
Administrators will also be able to charge users to access exclusive updates and content, Meta said.
The company said it would eventually take a 10 percent cut of such fees.
Antitrust pressure
Meta is currently embroiled in an antitrust lawsuit with the US Federal Trade Commission that takes issue with the firm’s acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram, alleging they were designed to illegally thwart competition.
Meta said in April that WhatsApp now has more than 3 billion monthly users, including more than 100 million in the US.
The app’s co-founders, Jan Koum and Brian Acton, were vocal in their opposition to bringing in ads to the app and left Meta, then Facebook, after reportedly clashing with executives over the issue.
Acton in 2018 provided $50 million (£37m) in funding to help found the non-profit Signal Foundation, which operates the Signal app that does not display ads.
