Meta confirms monetization plans for WhatsApp but denies advertising intentions

Meta has been exploring different ways to monetise WhatsApp.

Meta, the parent company of social media platform Facebook, has denied reports that it is exploring the idea of introducing advertising to its WhatsApp messaging app. The Financial Times reported that some teams within Meta had evaluated the use of ads as a way of monetizing WhatsApp, which is used daily by more than two billion people around the world. However, a statement by WhatsApp rejected the reports, saying that it was not testing or working on the proposition and had no current plans to do so. Meta has so far resisted adding advertising to WhatsApp, instead using the platform to offer its WhatsApp Business service, targeted at traders requiring certain paid-for services.

 Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, noted during last year’s Q3 earnings call that click-to-WhatsApp ads had reached an annual revenue run rate of $1.5 billion, with 80% year-on-year growth, and that the firm planned to roll out a merchant model for personalized messages. Meta has been exploring different ways to monetise WhatsApp. It includes offering WhatsApp Business services to merchants and facilitating peer-to-peer payments in India, Brazil, and Singapore. The firm is also looking to integrate payments into its broadcasting feature, Channels, which it launched globally earlier this week.