Ads may start appearing in WhatsApp’s popular Status feature, as reported by The Economic Times. At an event in New Delhi, WhatsApp Vice President Chris Daniels said that advertisements in WhatsApp Status will be the service’s “primary monetisation mode for the company.” He added that the move would offer “an opportunity for businesses to reach people.”
The executive did not give any timeline to the execution of the move.
The advertisements is reported to be powered by Facebook’s native advertising system, which also powers Instagram ads.
With WhatsApp dropping its subscription fee in 2016, there has been questions about how the messaging service would monetise itself. Facebook-owned since 2014, it’s no surprise that the new owners are in a rush to make money from the 1.5 billion-strong user base.
Facebook will reportedly run targeted ads on WhatsApp starting 2019.
The WhatsApp Status feature was launched last year, a knock-off of the Stories features found on Snapchat and later Instagram and Facebook. The Status feature, like Stories, has exploded in popularity, which allows you to add text, photos and videos to you profile.
Status updates appear only for 24 hours, their impermanence being part of its attraction.
I personally don’t use WhatsApp Status much, so it doesn’t quite bother me. However, ads in Facebook Messenger and Stories do.
What do you think about ads in Status and Stories? Leave you comments below.
VIA The Verge
