Rumors have been around for years, and now the imminent introduction of ads in WhatsApp seems to soon become a reality. As the “Financial Times” reports, Meta now wants to monetize Messenger like other services such as Facebook or Instagram. This refers to people familiar with the internal affairs of the group.
The background is that WhatsApp is still the most popular messenger in the world, but Meta hardly makes any money with the app. It should also be clear that the introduction of advertising could alienate many users, which is why many Meta employees are apparently critical of the step. Even a possible payment model without advertising would probably face a lot of headwind.
