- WhatsApp to soon start showing advertisements in the Status and Channels sections.
- WhatsApp head Will Cathcart clarified that the company will not push ads in the main inbox.
- The top executive hasn’t confirmed a timeline for when ads will start appearing on the platform.
WhatsApp will soon start displaying ads to its users, as confirmed by WhatsApp head Will Cathcart. Interestingly, this update comes just weeks after the top executive denied a report which said that a Meta-owned messaging platform would show ads. No business model is sustainable without a proper revenue stream and it looks like WhatsApp also wants to rely on advertisements to make it liable.
WhatsApp will start showing ads soon
- In an interview with a Brazillian publication, Cathcart clarified that WhatsApp will not show ads in the main chat inboxes.
- The advertisements and promotions may soon appear in the Status page and Channels section.
- Cathcart says that placing ads in the inbox is not a suitable model. “When people open their inbox, they don’t want to see advertising,” said the top executive.
Excluding the inbox, other places like the Status page and Channels might show ads. “The reason I qualified the answer is that there could be ads in other places — channels or statuses. For instance, Channels might charge people to subscribe, they might be exclusive to paid members, or the owners might want to promote the channel. But, no, we won’t put ads in your inbox,” said Cathcart.
WhatsApp first talked about pushing ads on the platform’s Status page in 2018. But these pans were taken back in 2020, possibly because the company realised the ad model might not be suitable for a messaging application. WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton doesn’t agree with the move to pollute WhatsApp with ads. “I sold my users’ privacy to a larger benefit,” Acton commented in a 2018 interview with Forbes.
Fast forward to now, Cathcart confirms ads will now show up on WhatsApp. However, he hasn’t confirmed when ads will start showing up on WhatsApp or what are the company’s plans to not make these ads a nuisance. Considering WhatsApp chats are end-to-end encrypted, it is unclear what data the platform will use to target ads on WhatsApp.
