Adverts will appear in WhatsApp by next year in an attempt to monetise the app, parent company Facebook has confirmed.
Promotional images will appear in WhatsApp’s ‘Status’ feature, which is similar to Stories in Instagram, Facebook revealed at its marketing conference.
The controversial move goes against a promise made by WhatsApp’s founder Brian Acton about never bringing advertising to the product.
Businesses will also be able to interact with customers using chat windows with ‘richer message formats’, Facebook said.
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Adverts will start appearing in Whatsapp by next year in an attempt to monetise the app, Facebook has announced. The image shows a ‘Status ad’ that appears much like those seen in Stories in Instagram
Matt Navarra, a social media consultant, tweeted the updates from the annual Facebook Marketing Summit.
He wrote: ‘Coming Soon to @Whatsapp – WhatsApp Status (Stories) to get Ads in 2020:
‘WhatsApp for Businesses to get richer messaging format options.
‘WhatsApp product catalog to be integrated with existing Facebook Business Manager catalog.’
The Status ads will appear between news updates and allow users to swipe up to gain more information about the product.
Status on WhatsApp is similar to a story on Instagram or Facebook as an update that lasts for 24 hours.
Adverts on Facebook will also link to WhatsApp to allow users to talk directly to brands via the messenger app as well as through Facebook Messenger.
In one of the pictures showing a Facebook advert at the summit, the option to ‘Open on WhatsApp’ was included.
Facebook also announced a new look for business account holders which allows them to communicate directly with customers through ‘richer message formats’ in messaging windows.
These include colourful backgrounds and the ability to send customised Whatsapp product pages.
The WhatsApp business app was introduced this year for business owners to customise automated messages and engage with customers directly.
These will appear in the WhatsApp ‘Status’ feature, which is similar to Stories in Instagram. The image shows the adverts that link back to WhatsApp on Facebook (left), similar to Instagram ads (middle) and the full page Status Ads (right)
WhatsApp business account holders will also be able to interact with customers using ‘richer message formats’ (pictured) it has been revealed by parent company Facebook
In one of the pictures showing a Facebook advert, the option to ‘Open on WhatsApp’ was available. The image above shows the current format available to business owners through the WhatsApp Business app
The decision to go back on the earlier promise to never introduce adverts comes as Facebook, who bought WhatsApp in 2014 for $18 billion (£14bn), prepares to monetise the app.
WhatsApp business was recently introduced for business owners to have their own profile page and use the chatbot functions to interact with customers.
Mr Daniels said last year: ‘We are going to be putting ads in ‘Status’. ‘That is going to be primary monetisation mode for the company as well as an opportunity for businesses to reach people on WhatsApp.’
The prospect of adverts on the app has stirred up controversy with its users and its original owners.
In a previous interview, WhatsApp founder Brian Acton said: ‘Targeted advertising is what makes me unhappy.
‘[Facebook] represents a set of business practices, principles and ethics, and policies that I don’t necessarily agree with.
‘At the end of the day, I sold my company. I sold my users’ privacy to a larger benefit.’
Previously, WhatsApp’s faithful users took to twitter to vent their frustration at the move which has been known since last year.
The move is against a promise made by Whatsapp’s founder Brian Acton about never bringing advertising to the product. The image shows a messaging window (left) with a business brand and what happens when you click on it (middle) and after selecting one of the options (right)
Some even suggested leaving the app behind as a result of Facebook’s intervention and moving to rival app Telegram.
WhatApp made a promise in 2012 that it would never introduce adverts.
It said: ‘Remember, when advertising is involved you the user are the product.
‘Advertising isn’t just the disruption of aesthetics, the insults to your intelligence and the interruption of your train of thought.
‘At every company that sells ads, a significant portion of their engineering team spends their day tuning data mining, writing better code to collect all your personal data, upgrading the servers that hold all the data and making sure it’s all being logged and collated and sliced and packaged and shipped out.
‘And at the end of the day the result of it all is a slightly different advertising banner in your browser or on your mobile screen.’
‘These days companies know literally everything about you, your friends, your interests, and they use it all to sell ads.
‘When we sat down to start our own thing together three years ago we wanted to make something that wasn’t just another ad clearing house.’
