WhatsApp gets ads

The WhatsApp app was founded in 2009 by Brian Acton. WhatsApp was then still a paid app and only available for iPhone. The creators solemnly promised that there would be no ads.

The famous chat app was bought by Facebook in 2014 for 13.8 billion euros. Facebook bought Instagram two years earlier for 1 billion euros and made a 3 billion offer for SnapChat a year later, but it was rejected. About five years after the takeover of WhatsApp, there will be advertising in the app. Former founder Acton confirms in an interview with Forbes that the ads will run in 2019. It is an attempt to make more money from the app. Since Acton left, Facebook has given the green light for the ads.

The ads will appear in WhatsApp Status from next year. WhatsApp status can be compared to the well-known ‘stories’ that you can already see on Instagram. A status works like this: you post a photo, text or video that you can share with all your WhatsApp friends or by your selected people. The status will automatically disappear after 24 hours. When viewing these status messages, you will therefore see advertisements next year. In the Netherlands, this status function is still little used, but this can be a stepping stone to even more advertisements in the app. You can always recognize advertisements by the message ‘sponsored’. There are currently no plans known about ads in the chat messages.

If Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg wants to earn as much from WhatsApp users as he already does with Facebook users, he could set a WhatsApp subscription of $1.99 per month. But this turns out not to be an option for the company. On the contrary, they can lose users due to a subscription model. The app is also popular in countries where the monthly salary is low. These people will therefore not yet have money for a subscription.

For the time being, you don’t have to worry about a WhatsApp subscription. The company earns much more money by placing advertisements.