WhatsApp: Once an ad-free space
Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2025 6:05 am
It was a long time ago when WhatsApp founder Jan Koum described his philosophy behind the messenger with the words "No advertising, no games, no gimmicks." That was over 10 years ago now. In 2014, he sold his company to the Meta Group for the equivalent of 22 billion euros - and the company has continued to develop the messenger ever since.
Our phones are so intimately connected to us, to our lives. Putting advertising on a device like that is a bad idea. You don't want to be interrupted by ads when you're chatting with your loved ones.
Jan Koum
In 2018, Meta launched the corporate version of the messenger: WhatsApp Business. Since then, it has been possible to create company profiles on WhatsApp on which you can present your company and the products you offer. A product catalog with, for example, a menu or a service overview can also be created. In 2022, the "Click to slovenia whatsapp resource WhatsApp" campaigns were added. These are separate campaign types on Facebook and Instagram that redirect users to a WhatsApp Business profile when they click on the ad. Here, for example, the purchase can then be completed directly in the messenger. Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman and CEO of Meta, and thus the overall boss of WhatsApp, most recently announced in 2022 that advertising in the messaging area of WhatsApp was not planned.
2018: Meta launches business messaging
Since 2018, it has also been possible to proactively send messages to customers from the customer list in WhatsApp Business. To do this, however, companies must already have the users' contact information. In addition, the feature, dubbed "Business Messaging", is relatively expensive for companies. The price is calculated per conversation with a user and varies greatly depending on the country of origin of the WhatsApp Business account. For German WhatsApp Business users, for example, the price is currently EUR 0.11 per marketing message. In India, on the other hand, you don't even pay a cent.
Our phones are so intimately connected to us, to our lives. Putting advertising on a device like that is a bad idea. You don't want to be interrupted by ads when you're chatting with your loved ones.
Jan Koum
In 2018, Meta launched the corporate version of the messenger: WhatsApp Business. Since then, it has been possible to create company profiles on WhatsApp on which you can present your company and the products you offer. A product catalog with, for example, a menu or a service overview can also be created. In 2022, the "Click to slovenia whatsapp resource WhatsApp" campaigns were added. These are separate campaign types on Facebook and Instagram that redirect users to a WhatsApp Business profile when they click on the ad. Here, for example, the purchase can then be completed directly in the messenger. Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman and CEO of Meta, and thus the overall boss of WhatsApp, most recently announced in 2022 that advertising in the messaging area of WhatsApp was not planned.
2018: Meta launches business messaging
Since 2018, it has also been possible to proactively send messages to customers from the customer list in WhatsApp Business. To do this, however, companies must already have the users' contact information. In addition, the feature, dubbed "Business Messaging", is relatively expensive for companies. The price is calculated per conversation with a user and varies greatly depending on the country of origin of the WhatsApp Business account. For German WhatsApp Business users, for example, the price is currently EUR 0.11 per marketing message. In India, on the other hand, you don't even pay a cent.