Meta Introduces Ads To WhatsApp As Messaging App Expands Revenue Strategy

WhatsApp has announced that it will begin displaying advertisements within the app, marking a major shift for the world’s most popular messaging platform as parent company Meta Platforms seeks to open new sources of revenue beyond Facebook and Instagram. In a blog post on Monday, WhatsApp said that ads will appear only in the app’s “Updates” tab, which includes features such as Status updates and Channels sections used by an estimated 1.5 billion people daily. Developers were quick to stress that personal chats will remain ad-free, and that end-to-end encryption ensures private conversations, calls, and group messages cannot be used for advertising or data collection. “The personal messaging experience on WhatsApp isn’t changing,” the company said. “Personal messages, calls and statuses are end-to-end encrypted and cannot be used to show ads.” The move represents a significant change for the app, which for over a decade prided itself on being free of advertisements. WhatsApp’s founders, Jan Koum and Brian Acton, had strongly opposed the introduction of ads when they launched the platform in 2009, describing them as intrusive and incompatible with user privacy. When Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for around &19 billion, the founders reiterated their commitment to an ad-free
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