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WhatsApp’s high head on Friday denied a Financial Times report that mentioned the Meta Platforms-owned messaging platform was exploring ads because it sought to spice up income.
“This @FT story is false. We aren’t doing this,” WhatsApp head Will Cathcart mentioned in a put up on social media platform X.
The report mentioned that groups at Meta have been discussing whether or not to indicate adverts in lists of conversations with contacts on the WhatsApp chat display screen, however no ultimate choices had been made, citing individuals acquainted with the matter.
FT added that Meta was additionally deliberating whether or not to cost a subscription price to make use of the app ad-free.
In an announcement, WhatsApp informed the FT that “we can’t account for every conversation someone had in our company but we are not testing this, working on it, and it’s not our plan at all.”
FT additionally mentioned many firm insiders have been in opposition to the transfer.
Meta didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for remark.
Facebook purchased WhatsApp, which has at all times been a free chat app, in 2014 for $19 billion.
Meta has already been working to spice up income from WhatsApp. CEO Mark Zuckerberg final 12 months mentioned that WhatsApp and Messenger would drive the corporate’s subsequent wave of gross sales progress, with enterprise messaging “probably going to be the next major pillar” of Meta’s enterprise.
WhatsApp’s Business software catered to greater than 200 million customers on its platform, as of June this 12 months, a four-fold bounce from about three years in the past.
