WhatsApp CVP Chris Daniels has confirmed that it will be introducing ads its popular messaging app. Speaking from India he confirmed that advertising would be sold to businesses in two ways. Firstly, WhatsApp will charge businesses a fee to connect with users. You’ll be able to find customer services via the app and send them a question or complaint.
The company will be charged to reply in some situations, although the BBC reports that replies sent quickly would be free. Costs for messages could be between £0.003 and £0.07 for the business involved.
Messages between customers and businesses are still encrypted, but they might be stored by the company with which you are dealing in an unencrypted form. Facebook and WhatsApp will not, however, see what you are talking about with any business you deal with. The second part of the plan is to start putting ads in the “Status” section of the app. Designed to offer similar functionality to Instagram Stories it allows you to push photo and video updates to friends. Companies will be able to advertise here, although it’s not clear what form those ads might take. They could be text-based, or video pre-roll. Either way, fans of the Status system are likely to be furious.
When it launched WhatsApp was offered as a paid-for app. Users would pay an up-front fee to download it and messaging was then free. Originally this was designed to slow the growth so the company didn’t expand too quickly. In 2013 the company made the app free but added a $1 per year (around £0.70) fee to use the service. People who had paid for the app when it first launched continued to use it for no ongoing cost.
Earlier this year rumours emerged that Facebook would monetize the service. This led to the co-founder quitting the firm and tweeting users should #DeleteFacebook. The timescale for introducing these adverts appears to be early next year.
