Facebook will no longer continue with its plans to place WhatsApp ads anywhere on the popular messaging platform.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the company has disbanded the team it formed to find suitable ways to insert ads to the platform. It has also deleted the team’s project from WhatsApp’s code.
Earlier in 2018, the company made known its desire to monetize the platform it had acquired in 2014 for $19 billion. With over a billion daily active users, WhatsApp ads provides a very good platform for Facebook to monetize. However, this controversial plan prompted Whatsapp founders, Jan Koum and Brian Acton to leave Facebook in 2018 and 2017 respectively.
Beyond that, the decision also raised several concerns about how the platform’s users will have their data mined for targeted adverts. A concern spurred by Facebook’s poor track record with handling of users’ data.
And now, Facebook appears to be backing off the plan to sell ads for placement in WhatsApp. However, it is not entirely clear if the social media giant is killing, in entirety, the Whatsapp ad program.
Although efforts are now on hold, the platform still plans to bring ads to the status page. So, the app may still show ads in the future, but only its status page. However, when that will happen is out of the question for now with this new development.
For now, the platform is reportedly focused on building features for its business users. This includes features that will “allow businesses to communicate with customers and organize those contacts.”
With millions of users on its Business platform, the company continues to roll out useful features for them, the most recent of being the ability to create product catalogs within the application.
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