As we know Facebook purchased Whatsapp for a whopping $19bn back in 2014. The social media giant has now decided to monetise its acquisition by including advertisements in its chat messages. WhatsApp has increasingly been used as a platform for which marketers are using to advertise thier products and services. The broadcast feature means a seller can reach thousands of individuals in one blast, similar to email opt ins but which a higher response rate.
Customer will reportedly be able to opt out of the feature and the functionality is currently being tested with large companies. The Walls street journal reports the “Status” feature page of WhatsApp will also incude ads eventually too, similar to how instagram have incuded ads between stories. With over 1.5 billion user worldwide WhatsApp have the potential and backing from the Facebook executive team to recoup its investment.