Previous year, one of WhatsApp's co-founders left Facebook, and his partner followed soon after this year. Apparently, it was over arguments about monetizing the app. Sadly, that day has come, and it seems
WhatsApp is implementing ads into the app interface.
Though this has been rumored for a while, the company's VP just confirmed the news, saying business will now be allowed to run advertisements. "Facebook will start monetizing
WhatsApp, and show ads in the
'Status' section of the app", Chris Daniels said in an Economic Times interview.
The announcement is in line with Facebook's plan. Right now,
'WhatsApp for Business' is free, allowing companies to link users directly into a chat with them from their website or social media. However, the new plan will, for a fee, allow companies to place advertisements right in your Status tab in the app.
Daniels hasn't revealed a timeline for the roll-out, but you can expect it to arrive at least by early 2019. What's also not clear is if ads will be blanketed to users or, using Facebook's method, will be targeted to individuals based on their interests. And for that to work, it means weakening the end-to-end encryption, which is dangerous precedent to set.
