Meta makes U-turn, introduces ads on WhatsApp status and channels

Meta has announced that businesses will now be able to run ads on WhatsApp. The status ad feature, which will start rolling out over the next few months, will prompt users to interact with the advertisers via the platform’s messaging features.

The announcement, made on Monday, presents the debut of ads on the messaging app and signifies a step in CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s intentions to make it the next step in his company’s plan. 

According to the company, the ads will only be shown to users within WhatsApp’s status section (Update Tab) to separate the promotions from people’s personal conversations.  

“This was a longtime request that we had from businesses, and they care about preserving people’s personal spaces,” said Nikila Srinivasan, vice-president of business messaging at WhatsApp. 

Since Meta bought WhatsApp in 2014, the popular messaging app has continued to grow worldwide. Unlike Facebook, Instagram, and most recently Threads, WhatsApp has never allowed advertising, making the latest development a major change for the app.

Also Read: Meta set to depeen its AI expansion with $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI.

Meta will also begin monetising the WhatsApp Channels feature through search ads and subscriptions. Channels from small businesses or brands can also pay to be promoted in a feed or a different account. The company reiterated that messages, calls, and status on WhatsApp will remain end-to-end encrypted.

Meanwhile, the platform noted that it will use basic data like users’ location, device language, channels they follow, and how they interact with marketing models to determine which adverts to serve.

The monetisation plan comes amid Meta’s high-profile antitrust case with the Federal Trade Commission over the company’s acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram. With 3 billion monthly users and 200 million businesses on the popular messaging app, Meta tagged the messaging app as the “next chapter” of its business.

The U-turn on WhatsApp no ads

In 2023, it was reported that parent company Meta was discussing how to introduce an advertising model into WhatsApp. At the time, the platform disregarded the report, claiming it was false.

Before its acquisition by Facebook for $19 billion 11 years ago, its founders Brian Acton and Jan Koum had made “No ads! No games! No gimmicks!” the company’s motto. However, the duo left Facebook after reportedly clashing with executives who were eager to inject the app with advertising and other practices they frowned at.

The group explained that the move to defect from the foundational position was because there are now spaces for advertising that would not interfere with personal chats. It said the ads are possible since they will appear in the status section of WhatsApp, keeping them separate from the main chat conversation area.

“People want to use WhatsApp for more than messaging close friends and family, and looking back a year and a half ago, that is part of the reason we introduced this Updates tab . . . If you’re someone that uses WhatsApp for personal messaging and you never come to this tab, you won’t see [advertising],” Srinivasan added, noting that the Update tab is the right place for the new feature.

Alice Newton-Rex, WhatsApp’s director of product, said that WhatsApp statuses were “the world’s most used stories product” as the Updates tab attracts 1.5bn users daily.

The company debuted WhatsApp’s Updates tab in June 2023 alongside the Channels feature that allows people and organisations to send broadcast messages and updates to their followers. Once the channel ads come into effect, organisations and people who are Channel administrators will spend money to boost the visibility of their respective Channels when a person searches for them via a directory. The feature is similar to the ads feature on Google’s and Apple’s app stores.

In April, Meta’s financial results exceeded its expected results, beating investors’ concerns that US President Donald Trump’s tariffs policy and related economic uncertainty could significantly knock Meta’s advertising business. The ads feature on the messaging app is set to help Meta increase its revenue potential.