The era of whatsapp being ads-free will soon end. In 2020, the instant messaging app will have ads appearing as part of the apps’ Statuses. This was announced by Facebook at their annual Facebook Marketing Summit in the Netherlands today.
WhatsApp is one of the platforms that people like the most for a reason: it is simple and ads free. Since its inception WhatsApp opted for a single payment less than one euro to allow users to enjoy the application without having to worry about advertising. The payment stopped being mandatory and today this application is completely free.
But earlier this week, rumors were leaked by twitter user MattNavarra that Whatsapp will soon undergo changes such as Whatsapp Business getting richer messaging format options, Whatapp catalog to be integrated with existing Facebook Business Manager Catalog and more importantly Whatsapp getting ads in statuses.
Chris Daniels, the man that Facebook assigned in WhatsApp when the founders left the company, also said in November that ads would come just as it did in Instagram Stories: So far, these were only speculations, but during a Facebook event held in the Netherlands yesterday it was announced that the application will truly change its interface and will include ads.
As we know, WhatsApp is a company that was acquired by Facebook and that until now is considered a "free" service, but with this new implementation, they can sell advertising to different brands. The ads will appear by means of a video or photo with a link, the user only has to swipe his finger on the screen to end up on the website of the company that is advertised.
Further details of the inclusion of advertising in the application were then revealed through the Twiitter account of Olivier Ponteville, head of a Social Media agency in Germany.
WhatsApp will bring Stories Ads in its status product in 2020. #FMS19 pic.twitter.com/OI3TWMmfKj — Olivier Ponteville (@Olivier_Ptv) May 21, 2019
So far it is unknown how many ads will be shown in the statuses or if once the advertising is implemented, the ads will then expand to other parts of the application, such as sponsored chats or small contextual advertisements in our conversations.
WhatsApp Status ads are not the only income channel that Facebook includes for WhatSapp. The Whatsapp business will have a cost, especially for large companies that wish to contact their customers through the application.
