The Strategist

Facebook abandons plans to integrate ads into Whatsapp



01/20/2020 - 09:56



WhatsApp is unlikely to introduce ads in the near future. According to US media, Facebook abandoned plans to integrate advertising into this messenger. Instead, the social network will focus on paid features for entrepreneurs who communicate with customers on WhatsApp.



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Facebook abandoned previously discussed plans to integrate advertising into the WhatsApp messenger, writes The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the situation. According to them, the team working on the integration of advertising in the messenger was disbanded, and the results of its work were removed from the WhatsApp code.

Before the takeover of Facebook, the WhatsApp messenger was a paid application - users had to pay $ 0.99 per year. Facebook canceled this fee.

In 2018, Facebook introduced a plan on how the company was going to make more money on the messenger. Among other things, there was advertising sales. Then-WhatsApp CEO Chris Daniels called advertising “the main way to monetize” for the company.

According to WSJ sources, now Facebook wants to make money using WhatsApp, creating paid features for entrepreneurs who want to interact with customers there.

USA and Western Europe user primarily use WhatsApp as a messenger for private communication; meanwhile, users in developing countries employ the app for doing business.

WhatsApp already has tools that allow entrepreneurs to sort customer requests, automatically answer them, and display product catalogs in the application. Also, those who advertise on Facebook or Instagram can directly contact users who click on this advertisement in WhatsApp chats. 

source: wsj.com