WhatsApp Head Will Cathcart Talks about the Introduction of Ads to the Messenger Service

In Meta’s family of apps, which together shape the everyday internet use of billions of users around the world, WhatsApp has always been the exception. While Facebook and Instagram are full of personalized advertisements, the messenger app Mark Zuckerberg acquired in 2014 remained ad-free. That has now changed for certain elements of the app. The WhatsApp home screen, where the chats are listed, will remain untouched, as will the private and group chats. They will also continue to be end-to-end encrypted. But ads will soon begin appearing in the “Updates” tab. According to Meta, the tab is used by 1.5 billion users There will be two kinds of ads: In the Updates section (German: “Aktuelles”), personalized ads, customized for the user’s profile, will appear among the status updates of friends and contacts. In the Channels section (German: “Kanäle), creators and companies will be able to promote their own channels for a fee. Those ads will appear in the channel directory and marked as “sponsored.” WhatsApp advertising material: This image shows how the new features will look. Foto: Meta Whether users will be given the option in the future to opt out of those ads for a subscription price, and what
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