Facebook announces WhatsApp adverts

It’s currently a free platform enjoyed by nearly two billion people.

But users can expect a significant change in their experience of WhatsApp, next year – when Facebook bosses plan to flood it with adverts.

The Android and iOS chat app, which was originally released in 2009, will start to embed paid-for content in the app’s Status feature from 2019. 

It comes five years after Mark Zuckerberg’s company bought the platform from co-founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton for a whopping £22billion.

Both Koum and Acton later quit Facebook, citing differences with the social media company.

Insiders believe they were unhappy that their beloved product – which was originally marketed as advert-free and end-to-end encrypted – would soon host commercial content at the expense of users’ privacy.  

Specifically, although the latter will remain unchanged, the men were unhappy that Facebook wanted to share data across platforms in order to customise the adverts.

Source: The Daily Mail 

What do you think about the prospect of advertising on WhatsApp?