Seems like WhatsApp is getting busy these days since its co-founders stepped down and away from it.
Last week, the messaging company announced that it will be introducing stickers to the app in its latest update, a feature that’s already present in other similar apps like Telegram, LINE, and Facebook Messenger.
The update is rolling out progressively worldwide and “will be available for Android and iPhone over the coming weeks”, WhatsApp announced on its blog.
It also added that they will launch with sticker packs created by their own designers at WhatsApp as well as a selection from other artists, and support for third-party sticker packs so designers and developers can make their own stickers to use on the app.
Now, according to Android Authority, WhatsApp has “confirmed that it would soon include ads in the app” after “almost 10 years… [of] staunchly [rejecting] placing advertisements”.
Ads will be served in the ‘Status’ section where people share images, videos, and GIFs that disappear after 24 hours (like Snapchat and Instagram Stories), and it will be the main monetisation method for the company, vice-president of WhatsApp Chris Daniels said.
He continued saying that this move is also an “opportunity for businesses to reach people on WhatsApp” but did not give any more information on when we can expect to see this in place.
According to another report, ads in WhatsApp will be run by Facebook’s native advertising system.
WhatsApp, which was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for US$19 billion, has over 1.5 billion users currently.
In a previous effort to monetise WhatsApp, the company released a WhatsApp Business API, a tool that lets businesses chat with their customers.
Businesses pay to send a text to their customers and for replies that are sent later than 24 hours of the customer’s last message.
WhatsApp co-founders were reportedly “forced” to quit the company as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was “in a rush to make money from the messaging service”.
Telling Forbes in an interview this year, Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp, was “under pressure” from Zuckerberg and his wife to monetise Whatsapp.
He resisted their probes into the encryption model he helped build as they wanted to deliver targeted ads and commercial messaging.
“Targeted advertising is what makes me unhappy,” Acton said.
Sources believe that the targeted ads feature will begin sometime next year.
Featured Image Credit: Vulcan Post