- WhatsApp co-founder resisted ads The app has since been acquired for $22 billion in 2014 for $22 billion, and Brian Acton and Jan Koum left the company in 2017 and 2018 respectively, including the app, with Meta introducing ads to the “Status” feature and sponsored channels in the “Update” tab of WhatsApp.
WhatsApp co-founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton never wanted to include ads on their messaging platforms, but new owner Meta moved forward with plans to do so on Monday.
The parent company of Facebook and Instagram, which purchased WhatsApp in 2014, was I said Ads will be introduced on the “Update” tab of the app on Monday. The tab counts to 1.5 billion users every day, the company said. The “Status” feature, which removes photos and videos, now includes ads, just like Instagram’s “Story”, allowing advertisers to pay to boost their WhatsApp channels. People and businesses running their own channels can sell subscriptions to content, the company said in a blog post.
The new ad features counters to the vision of WhatsApp co-founders. When Koum and Acton first launched the app in 2009 after quitting their jobs on Yahoo!, the pair actively resisted adding ads following previous bad experiences. Instead, they charged users $1 a year using the service after a free year.
According to Jim Goetz of Sequoia Capital Partner, former CEO Koum reportedly kept a note from Acton to remind him of the company’s mission.
“Yang tapes a note from Brian to his desk. It’s “No ads! No games! No gimmicks!” Goetz wrote in 2014. Blog post.
When Koum and Acton sell the company to Meta (Then Facebook) $22 billion in 2014 Meta kept WhatsApp ad-free and assured them that the pair didn’t need to compromise on their principles, Goetz wrote in a blog post. In his own blog post, the co-founder promised that “there is absolutely no ads to disrupt communication.” Washington Post It has been reported 2018.
Still, WhatsApp co-founders reportedly clashed later with meta’s leadership on WhatsApp monetization. Acton and Koum have pushed Meta to include ads in WhatsApp with WhatsApp leaving in 2017 and 2018 respectively, with the long battle over the pressure that WhatsApp shares more data with Facebook and Meta to include ads in WhatsApp.
In 2019, Acton said in an interview with Forbes Meta’s plan to include ads in WhatsApp’s status feature has defeated app users and social compacts. “Targeted ads make me unhappy,” he said.
When Acton proposed an alternative to WhatsApp ads, our Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, including charging users for messages sent after the cut-off of free messages, shot him down because it didn’t expand, Acton said.
“I called her once,” Acton said. Forbes. “No, you don’t mean it doesn’t scale. You don’t mean it’s a bit hemmed and you don’t make a bit of money. And we went ahead and I think I made my point.
A Meta spokesman said in a statement. luck He added that the company has been talking about incorporating ads into WhatsApp for years and that the new ad features will not disrupt users’ chats.
“I think this reflects the way you want to use WhatsApp. If only WhatsApp sends a personal message to a friend or family member, it makes sense if nothing changes,” the spokesman said.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.
