Meta Rolls Out Ads, Paid Subscriptions on WhatsApp

(MENAFN) Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has revealed plans to roll out advertising and subscription options on WhatsApp, marking a major shift for the world’s most popular messaging app. The company announced Monday that the changes will be introduced gradually over the coming months as part of a broader push to expand business tools and revenue streams.

“People really want to chat to businesses on their own terms, and they want to do it in a place where they already spend their time, which is on WhatsApp,” said Nikila Srinivasan, Meta’s vice president of product management, in a statement to a news outlet.

The new ad placements will appear in the "Updates" section—home to WhatsApp Statuses and Channels—allowing users to interact directly with businesses from within the app. Meta emphasized that these updates will not disrupt private messaging, assuring that users who use the platform solely to communicate with friends and family “will see no change” to their experience.

In addition to ads, channel administrators will gain access to monetization tools, including the ability to offer paid subscriptions and promote content to WhatsApp’s 1.5 billion global users.

“For the first time, channel admins have a way to increase their channels’ visibility,” the company noted. A Meta spokesperson confirmed to the news outlet that Channels will remain free for followers, despite the introduction of promotional features.

To support targeted advertising, Meta said it will rely on "limited info like your country or city, language, the Channels you’re following and how you interact with the ads you see"—while assuring users that personal messages and group chats will remain private and won't be accessed or used for ad targeting.

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