Almost a decade after buying it, Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is still not ready to monetise WhatsApp with adverts, it says.
But the company is close to launching its WhatsApp Channels broadcast service in 150 countries, enabling users them to receive private updates from celebrities, sports teams and thought leaders.
Today the Facebook and Instagram owner rejected newspaper reports that it is looking to introduce ads in the messaging app.
The Financial Times said there have been discussions within the company about potentially introducing ads in WhatsApp, potentially among the lists of conversations on the WhatsApp 'home' screen.
But Meta's head of WhatsApp, Will Cathcart, issued a rebuttal, saying on X/Twitter the FT "story is false".
This @FT story is false. We aren't doing this.
Also it looks like you misspelled Brian's name... https://t.co/Z47z9FC5yu
— Will Cathcart (@wcathcart) September 15, 2023
But while this latest story may not be true, the company has publicly said it was looking at ads in the past.
In 2019, the company said in a presentation that it was planning to add 'Stories Ads' the following year.
WhatsApp will bring Stories Ads in its status product in 2020. #FMS19 pic.twitter.com/OI3TWMmfKj
— Olivier Ponteville (@Olivier_Ptv) May 21, 2019
Last year, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg launched a new effort to monetise WhatsApp by enticing businesses to use the platform, with a new service, called WhatsApp Cloud API.
The new service was destined to enable businesses to customise their WhatsApp experience and speed up their response time to customers "in just a few minutes.".
However the company was hemorrhaging money from its virtual reality and augmented reality division.
Following a poor earnings report in October, which saw Meta’s share price sink to the lowest point in over five years, a rejig in strategy has helped the shares more than double from their lows.
This year this summer, while also overseeing 26,000 layoffs, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg has been looking to push other developments.
In the summer, multiple artificial intelligence (AI) tools were launched for WhatsApp and other social media platforms, including two new chatbots similar to ChatGPT.