Facebook Won't Bring Ads To WhatsApp... Yet

Apparently, the team working on bringing ads to WhatsApp was recently disbanded, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

Ever since it acquired WhatsApp in February 2014, Facebook has had plans to monetize the platform. However, it seems that the company is now taking a step backwards, and putting its plans on hold. Thus, there will be no ad products on WhatsApp in 2020, despite Facebook’s plans to bring Status Ads to the platform.

Not only are the product plans on hold, but apparently the entire team working on integrating ads into WhatsApp has now been disbanded and its work removed from the app’s source code – according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

WhatsApp will remain almost ad-free. Plans to integrate more ads on the platform have now been put on hold by the company.

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“Ads in Status remains a long-term opportunity for WhatsApp. We believe it is a great way for people to discover a business that’s important to them, although we do not have a more specific timeline we can provide,” a spokesperson explained.

“At the moment, the team is focused on building new features to help businesses achieve success, as well as providing payments in a number of countries. For example, late last year, WhatsApp launched catalogs to help businesses showcase their goods and services right within the app.”

Back in 2018, WhatsApp co-founders left the company after disagreements over whether to include ads on the platform.