Technology @lemmy.world vowseh @lemmy.eco.br 9mo ago

WhatsApp head Will Cathcart says the chat app could introduce ads in Status

techcrunch.com WhatsApp head Will Cathcart says the chat app could introduce ads in Status | TechCrunch

While WhatsApp is not planning to show ads in the main inbox, it could still show ads in Status and channels.

38 comments

As a reminder, Signal is still awesome, is run by cool people who have been doing good stuff for your privacy for many many years, runs on your phone and your laptop and your dad's PC and your buddy's phone of that other brand ...
- Main issue for me is that no one, I know uses any other app than WhatsApp.
  
  I use telegram for piracy but wish people would move over to Telegram or Signal. Majority seems to be stubborn on WhatsApp because of easiness and laziness.
  
  Telegram is less private then whatsapp, unless you use the private chats it's not even encrypted.
  
  It's not so much laziness as the reason you've given - everyone else is on WhatsApp. Why would I move to a new messaging app when I literally can't message the people I want to message on it cause they don't have it.
- While I still use and sort of like Signal, I feel that dropping SMS support was the wrong choice and I don't like the direction they are going. They are also against federation which I also don't like. I've stopped recommending Signal to people.
  
  I believe them when they say that one reason to drop SMS was that some vulnerable users were mistakenly sending SMS when they thought they were safe by using Signal. That's a serious problem where a person having Signal on their phone could cause them to expose themselves to attacks. That person's life is more important than my momentary inconvenience when my mom is using SMS and my friend is using Signal.
  
  I really wish that there were better options; some sort of incrementally-built web-of-trust like the old PGP model. But right now, Signal is still in a sweet spot for me: yes, it's centralized, but it gets certain specific benefits of centralization while also credibly assuring that the server owners can't do evil with it even if they want to ... and they credibly don't. I can get my family and my housemates to use it, instead of something from Zuckerberg.
- deleted
Oh boy, what can't we put ads in?

Can we get MtDew Green Lights with Coca-Cola Red lights?

The spacebar on laptops is free game, just asking for it.

It really is a shame that I can still buy bedsheets that aren't branded with a corporate advertising campaign.
- This comment brought to you by Brawndo® - It's What Plants Crave!
  
  Made you look! To advertise your company with us, call 555-SUCK
- Time has shown that people would rather watch ads than pay money for digital goods and services.
  
  Because the pricing is fucking ridiculous for the ad free version of things. And even then, ad-free usually means ad-free for a limited time until the profit line starts to slow down.
I paid for Whatsapp many years ago. I wonder if they can just do that retroactively.
- Sure they can
- You paid??? What is this, a WinRAR equivalent flex? I just reinstalled or something like that can't remember.
  
  The app market was different back then. No real alternatives, not meta owned, I think I paid 1€. Nowadays I wouldn't pay for any app other than a good Lemmy reader, I also use my phone for not much else anymore.
- I think I paid 79p for WhatsApp back on the iPhone 3G or something.
This is the best summary I could come up with:

In September, Cathcart categorically denied a report from Financial Times saying that the Meta-owned chat app plans to show ads.

“The reason I qualified [sic] the answer is that there could be ads in other places — channels or status.

WhatsApp had talked about putting ads in Status a few years ago, but the company never rolled it out.

A Meta spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch it’s not currently testing Status ads in any country.

Meta hasn’t provided any details about when or if it plans to launch ads in either product, Status or Channels.

Until now, WhatsApp, which is used by more than 2 billion people across the world, has relied on its business messaging and click-to-WhatsApp ads on other platforms like Facebook for revenue.

The original article contains 290 words, the summary contains 125 words. Saved 57%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

38 comments