It's official, ads are coming to WhatsApp 1z2e3l
Clearing the air on Chris Daniels on Wednesday said the company is going to put ments in its "Status" feature.
"We are going to be putting ads in 'Status'. That is going to be primary monetisation mode for the company as well as an opportunity for businesses to reach people on WhatsApp," Daniels told reporters in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Daniels, however, did not give any timeline to this development that has been in the news for some time.
WhatsApp has over 1.5 billion s globally, including more than 250 million in India.
There were media reports earlier this month that the Facebook-owned messaging app is planning to allow ments to be displayed in the "Status" section of the app.
WhatsApp's "Status" feature allows s to share text, photos, videos and animated GIFs that disappear after 24 hours.
According to media reports, the ments would be powered by Facebook's native advertising system and would be aimed at helping s understand and participate in businesses using the messaging app.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's goal to monetise WhatsApp has forced the social media messaging service's co-founders to leave the company.
One of them, Brian Acton, told Forbes recently that Zuckerberg was in a rush to make money from the messaging service and undermine elements of its encryption technology. "Targeted advertising is what makes me unhappy," Acton said.
Four years after its acquisition by Facebook for $19 billion, WhatsApp, which now has over 1.5 billion s (against Facebook's 2.3 billion), will reportedly carry targeted ads from 2019 - on a platform that has been ad-free till date.
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