Meta finally brings ads to WhatsApp

It took 11 years since Facebook acquired $ 19 billion, however Dead Finally, it brings ads to WhatsApp, which represents a major change of an application that its founders have avoided advertising.

Meta announced on Monday that companies will now be able to operate the so -called state ads on WhatsApp, which demands users to interact with advertisers through messages features in the application. Ads will only be displayed to users on the WhatsApp tab to separate promotions from individuals’ personal conversations. In addition, Meta will start customizing WhatsApp feature through search and subscriptions ads.

The appearance of ads on the correspondence application is an important step in the CEO of Meta Mark ZuckerbergPlan to make WhatsApp “the next chapter” in the history of his company, he said Jim Cramer from CNBC in 2022. This transition comes to achieve income from WhatsApp in the center of Meta Anti -monopoly issue With the Federal Trade Committee for the company’s acquisitions in the application of correspondence and Instagram.

Indeed, Meta allows advertisers to run the so -called click ads to the Facebook and Instagram that direct users to WhatsApp where they can deal directly with companies. Zuckerberg told the correspondence between brands and consumers “should be the next corner for our business”, adding that WhatsApp now has more than 3 billion users per month, including “more than 100 million people in the United States and grow quickly there.”

Now, companies can run these types of ads within WhatsApp themselves. New status ads appear on the user update tab within the “Status” feature of the tab that can be used to share photos, videos and texts that fade after 24 hours, similar to Instagram stories.

Since I bought Meta WhatsApp in 2014, the famous correspondence application continued to grow all over the world. But unlike Facebook and Instagram and Last topicsWhatsApp did not allow the advertisement.

WhatsApp founders, Jean came and Brian ActonIt was public in their contempt for the advertising industry, and the duo left Facebook after it was received Clash with executives Those who were keen to inject the application with advertising and other practices that avoid it.

The social media company does not reveal the specific WhatsApp sales, but analysts previously estimated the application revenues between 500 million dollars and 1 billion dollars From charging companies for tools and services so that they can send messages to customers on the application.

Nichella Srinvasan, head of Meta, for commercial messages, said on Friday that Meta will use “very basic information” to recommend ads to display WhatsApp users. This includes the country of the person, the city, the device, the language and the data such as those who follow or how they interact with ads.

The company launched the WhatsApp update tab in June 2023 alongside accompanying Channel feature This allows people and institutions to send broadcasting messages and updates to their followers instead of personal conversations. The company said on Monday that Mita would get the channel’s feature.

Organizations and people who are channel officials will now be able to spend money to enhance the vision of each of them when a person searches for them through a guide, similar to ads on Apple and Google app.

In addition, channel officials will be able to impose fees on monthly users to subscribe to access exclusive updates and content. A spokesman for the company said that the company will not immediately make money from these monthly subscription fees, but it eventually plans to take a 10 % reduction in these contributions.

Serenivasan said that Mita hopes that by reducing her new ads in the “WhatsApp” tab, it will disrupt users with the least possible. She said that user status updates as well as personal messages and calls on WhatsApp will remain encrypted.

“We really believe that the update tab is the place for these new features,” said Srenaifasan.