Facebook's controversial plan to sell ads in WhatsApp has been put on the back-burner, according to a new report today from The Wall Street Journal.
Prior to leaving, Koum and Acton changed WhatsApp's terms of service to explicitly forbid displaying ads in the app, which complicated Facebook's future efforts to do so, according to WSJ's sources.
Facebook has changed its platforms' terms of service in the past, but introducing ads on WhatsApp would have required a formal notification of users, creating a potential public-relations problem for Facebook.
Still, Facebook hasn't completely given up on inserting ads into WhatsApp, and reportedly plans to add them to the app's Status feature "at some point." Status allows users to create short-lived posts similar to Instagram's Stories.
However, for now the focus is said to be on developing money-making features that enable businesses to communicate with customers and better manage those interactions.
Before the acquisition, WhatsApp was initially a paid-for app and later transitioned to a $0.99 annual subscription service. Facebook made the service free after buying it and later unveiled its own revenue-generating plans for the platform, which has 1.5 billion users globally.
WhatsApp in recent months disbanded a team that had been established to find the best ways to integrate ads into the service, according to people familiar with the matter. The team's work was then deleted from WhatsApp's code, the people said.Plans to monetize WhatsApp were floated no longer after Facebook acquired the messaging service in February 2014 for $22 billion. WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum and Brian Acton continually pushed back against the plans, which were a factor that ultimately led both men to quit the company.
Prior to leaving, Koum and Acton changed WhatsApp's terms of service to explicitly forbid displaying ads in the app, which complicated Facebook's future efforts to do so, according to WSJ's sources.
Facebook has changed its platforms' terms of service in the past, but introducing ads on WhatsApp would have required a formal notification of users, creating a potential public-relations problem for Facebook.
Still, Facebook hasn't completely given up on inserting ads into WhatsApp, and reportedly plans to add them to the app's Status feature "at some point." Status allows users to create short-lived posts similar to Instagram's Stories.
However, for now the focus is said to be on developing money-making features that enable businesses to communicate with customers and better manage those interactions.
Before the acquisition, WhatsApp was initially a paid-for app and later transitioned to a $0.99 annual subscription service. Facebook made the service free after buying it and later unveiled its own revenue-generating plans for the platform, which has 1.5 billion users globally.
21 comments
It's hard to believe, but today marks the 20th birthday of MacRumors, which was founded on February 24, 2000, with articles starting just a few days later.
While longtime readers may be...
Apple's first Mac with a processor designed in house is set to be released during the first half of 2021, Apple analyst Ming Chi Kuo said in a note to investors this morning that was obtained by...
The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to hear Apple's appeal of a $440 million judgment in one of the patent infringement cases brought by VirnetX a decade ago, reports Reuters.
...
In a report touching on several topics today, Japanese site Mac Otakara claims that Apple's Tile-like "AirTags" item trackers will be "completely waterproof" and use similar...
Apple's next iPhone series may support a new Wi-Fi standard known as IEEE 802.11ay, according to Japanese blog Mac Otakara.
802.11ay is the follow-up of IEEE 802.11ad, quadrupling the...
Taiwan-based Innolux has won orders to supply Apple with mini-LED panels for a new iPad Pro due to launch later this year, according to a new report today.
Taiwan's Economic Daily News...
Mobile leaker Ben Geskin today shared images on Twitter purporting to be a case for the next-generation iPad Pro, which Apple is rumored to be launching sometime in the first half of this year.
...
Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, and had he not passed away in 2011 at the age of 56, today would have marked his 65th birthday. Jobs founded Apple alongside...
