How’s this for a bummer. Not only does Facebook want to bombard you with five ads in a 20-second video, they still plan to serve ads in one of the most popular chat apps in the world.
Late last year, Facebook, the parent company that owns both Instagram and WhatsApp, confirmed that it will start serving advertisements in WhatsApp. This followed an announcement back in January 2019 that Zuckerberg plans to integrate all three apps’ messaging platforms into one.
Although rollout of ads in WhatsApp has been put on hold for now, it looks like Facebook is still very keen to do it. This is according to The Information, who reports that “… WhatsApp was finally close to flipping the switch on advertising, kick-starting a plan to generate billions of dollars a year in revenue from one of Facebook’s crown jewels.” But internal affairs put the project on hold. But you know Facebook, the peeps can’t wait too long to start generating more cash.
It now looks like the company will only introduce ads, that will be shown in the ‘Statuses’ of contacts after the integration of the three apps have taken place. As far as we can decipher. Facebook only plans to integrate the chat sections of all three apps. So your precious Insta won’t suddenly merge with Facebook.
Honestly, we’re not emotionally ready for this kind of change in our lives. It’s satisfying knowing that each platform serves a seperate purpose and you can keep the chats isolated from each other. The creeps on Facebook are very different to the creeps on Instagram. And you can’t have those creeps share a chat column with your cute old grandmother and the extended family.
We’ll have to see how this all pans out. As we already know, Facebook’s gonna do as Facebook does. It doesn’t take user concerns too seriously, and generally do whatever the hell they please.
Sauce: Engadget