Meta has refuted reports suggesting that the company was considering the introduction of advertisements on its widely-used messaging platform, WhatsApp. This clarification comes in the wake of a story by Financial Times which stated that certain teams within Meta were assessing the feasibility of displaying ads within the list of conversations on WhatsApp's main screen.
WhatsApp's Monetization Strategies
In response to the aforementioned claims, WhatsApp clarified that they were neither in the process of testing such a feature nor did they have any intentions to implement it in the foreseeable future. While analysts have often theorized that Meta might eventually introduce ads to WhatsApp, especially given its massive user base of over 2 billion people globally, the company has consistently refrained from doing so.
Instead, Meta has been focusing on monetizing through WhatsApp Business, a platform tailored for merchants that charges them for specific services. This business-centric version of WhatsApp has garnered over 200 million active users per month.
This @FT story is false. We aren't doing this.
Also it looks like you misspelled Brian's name… https://t.co/Z47z9FC5yu
— Will Cathcart (@wcathcart) September 15, 2023
Revenue Generation and Future Plans
Earlier this year, Meta unveiled alterations to the pricing structure and messaging categories on WhatsApp Business, aiming to boost its revenue. These categories encompassed utility, authentication for sending one-time passcodes, marketing, and user-initiated service conversations.
Mark Zuckerberg, during last year's Q3 earnings call, highlighted that the “click-to-WhatsApp” ads had achieved an annual revenue run rate of $1.5 billion, marking an 80% growth year-on-year. Furthermore, the company has been gearing up to roll out personalized message models for merchants. Additionally, WhatsApp has been facilitating peer-to-peer and customer-to-merchant payments in several countries, including India, Brazil, and Singapore. They also hinted at potential integrations of payment features into their recently launched broadcasting feature, Channels.
In other major WhatsApp news this week, Meta is creating a new section that will integrate the service with third-party messaging apps. This section will allow WhatsApp to meet requirements of Europe‘s new Digital Markets Act (DMA).
According to a recent discovery by Android Authority, a new section within WhatsApp is being developed to house chats from third-party apps. The introduction of this feature means that users from different messaging platforms can communicate with WhatsApp users without necessarily having the app.
