Advertising in WhatsApp statuses could become a reality

The personal messaging platform Whatsapp may start offering the possibility of ads in statuses, similar to Instagram stories, soon. One of the service's co-creators said that Mark Zuckerbergcurrent shareholder in charge of the company, has been looking for ways to make the service profitable for some time.

Apparently, what has been preventing this measure from being adopted is data encryption: neither Facebook nor Whatsapp as a company, they know what the more than 1 and a half billion users of the service are talking about.

The measure even generated repercussions and abandonment of one of the app's co-founders, Brian Actonwho said in an interview with Forbes what:

“It was like I said, well, 'you guys want to do these things that I disagree with, so I should get out of the way so I don't compromise,' and that's what I did.”

Acton he had been having problems with Facebook for some time, and lost more than 850 million dollars in shares when he left the company, all due to differences in positioning, apparently.

Why does Facebook want to monetize WhatsApp?

Seeking to recover the investment from the purchase of more than 20 billion dollars, Zuckerberg wants to find a way to use this regular and voluminous user base. And you shouldn't give up.

This raises some questions about usability and the purpose of the platform, which already faces direct competition from Telegram It's from Skype. What sold the Whatsapp Until that moment, it was the security of information and the non-existence of advertisements.

Another alternative is the sale of tools for companies to communicate with their customers, but as this also comes up against encryption and security, no measures have been announced.

In any case, it is likely that we will soon see more solid news about the path chosen by the company.

Regardless of the form, it is likely that some marketing monetization model will be adopted, but even if companies are prepared to enter the game, they must be concerned about the migration of users to other “cleaner” platforms.

Another negative reaction to decision-making by the Facebook can harm companies that use one of their platforms to communicate with their customers via advertising.

For more content like this, access the Insights portal and subscribe to our newsletter in the field below.