Adverts are coming to WhatsApp

CapeTalk's Clarence Ford speaks to Barbara Friedman about trending online stories.

Listen below:

Meta has announced that WhatsApp will be rolling out ads globally.

The ads will not be shown inside the private chats section of the app but in the 'Updates' tab, where users upload their status and explore various channels. 

"If you only use WhatsApp to chat with friends and loved ones, there's no change to your experience at all," explains Meta.

Like Instagram, where users see ads after a few stories, WhatsApp users will be similarly served.

The Updates tab is used by 1.5 billion people every day, highlighting the significant monetisation potential.

People who have chosen to link their WhatsApp account to Facebook or Instagram will see more personalised ads.

Apart from placing ads in status stories, WhatsApp will also earn through Channel subscriptions and Channel promotion. App stores will facilitate subscription payments.

WhatsApp will utilise user data such as country/city, language and the channels they are following to push ads.

Reacting to the announcement, social media users slammed Meta for taking away what made the app popular in the first place, while many highlighted that the app's founders, before they sold WhatsApp to Meta, once said it would never put ads inside the app.

"It's becoming another Facebook. It's becoming another feed that you follow. Everyone is looking at ways to monetise and advertise through their digital platforms because the world was not trained to pay for digital content, right?"

- Barbara Friedman

"In a way, in the beginning, when media houses pivoted to digital, they thought, 'Ag, we'll give it away for free. It will be fine...' Now, all these years later, it's very hard to retrain people to go behind a paywall or to pay for anything, and so advertising is the one way you can do that...

- Barbara Friedman

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the full conversation.