{"id":15551,"date":"2025-06-17T01:20:47","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T01:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=15551"},"modified":"2025-06-17T01:20:47","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T01:20:47","slug":"whatsapp-introduces-ads-fulfilling-a-plan-its-cofounders-hated-so-much-they-left-over-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=15551","title":{"rendered":"WhatsApp introduces ads, fulfilling a plan its cofounders hated so much they left over it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The cofounders of WhatsApp resisted ads in<\/strong> the app for years, including after the company was acquired by Meta for $22 billion in 2014.\u00a0 Brian Acton and Jan Koum left the company in 2017 and 2018, respectively, and on Monday Meta introduced ads in the \u201cStatus\u201d feature as well as sponsored Channels in the the \u201cUpdates\u201d tab of WhatsApp.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>WhatsApp cofounders Jan Koum and Brian Acton never wanted to include ads in their messaging platform, but new owner Meta moved forward Monday with a plan to do just that.<\/p>\n<p>Facebook and Instagram\u2019s parent company, which bought WhatsApp in 2014, <a href=\"https:\/\/about.fb.com\/news\/2025\/06\/helping-you-find-more-channels-businesses-on-whatsapp\/\">said<\/a> Monday it would introduce ads in the app\u2019s \u201cUpdates\u201d tab, which the company said counts on 1.5 billion users daily. The \u201cStatus\u201d feature, which shows disappearing photos or videos, will now include ads much like Instagram \u201cStories\u201d and advertisers can also now pay to boost their own WhatsApp channels. People and companies that run their own channels will also be able to sell subscriptions to their content, the company said in a blog post.<\/p>\n<p>The new ad features run counter to WhatsApp\u2019s cofounders\u2019 vision. When Koum and Acton first launched the app in 2009 after quitting their jobs at Yahoo! the pair actively resisted adding advertising following previous bad experiences. Instead, they charged users $1 per year for using the service after a free year.<\/p>\n<p>Former CEO Koum reportedly kept a note from Acton on his desk to remind him of the company\u2019s mission, according to Sequoia Capital partner Jim Goetz.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJan keeps a note from Brian taped to his desk that reads \u2018No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks!\u2019 It serves as a daily reminder of their commitment to stay focused on building a pure messaging experience,\u201d Goetz wrote in a 2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/sequoiacapital.tumblr.com\/post\/77211282835\/four-numbers-that-explain-why-facebook-acquired?\">blog post<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When Koum and Acton sold the company to Meta (then Facebook) for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/behind-the-messy-expensive-split-between-facebook-and-whatsapps-founders-1528208641?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=ASWzDAgXmV32WPle_knlKymsy96pxYAW8sIqchOGyvdoQjA4i10r-vaiNaquEF6O_R4%3D&amp;gaa_ts=68507d5b&amp;gaa_sig=GjKk7CeF0CKIK-PpQmEn8bF5Rtcq_QuJ0Fvv_VSIcFXxQ_t3-BcheVegurkylgvLL_7othG8_6LOYh0GErcK4Q%3D%3D\">$22 billion in 2014,<\/a> Meta assured them it would keep WhatsApp ad-free and the pair wouldn\u2019t have to compromise their principles, Goetz wrote in the blog post. In their own blog post, the cofounders also promised \u201cabsolutely no ads interrupting your communication,\u201d the <em>Washington Post<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/economy\/whatsapp-founder-plans-to-leave-after-broad-clashes-with-parent-facebook\/2018\/04\/30\/49448dd2-4ca9-11e8-84a0-458a1aa9ac0a_story.html\">reported<\/a> in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Still, WhatsApp\u2019s cofounders reportedly later clashed with Meta\u2019s leadership on the monetization of WhatsApp. Both Acton and Koum left WhatsApp, in 2017 and 2018, respectively, after a long battle over pressure for WhatsApp to share more data with Facebook as well as the push by Meta to include ads in WhatsApp.<\/p>\n<p>In 2019, Acton said in an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/parmyolson\/2018\/09\/26\/exclusive-whatsapp-cofounder-brian-acton-gives-the-inside-story-on-deletefacebook-and-why-he-left-850-million-behind\/\"><em>Forbes<\/em><\/a> that Meta\u2019s plans to include ads in WhatsApp&#8217;s Status feature broke a social compact with the app\u2019s users. \u201cTargeted advertising is what makes me unhappy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>When Acton proposed an alternative to advertising on WhatsApp, which included charging users for messages sent after a cutoff of free messages, Sheryl Sandberg, then the company\u2019s chief operating officer, shot him down because it wouldn&#8217;t scale, Acton said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI called her out one time,\u201d Acton told <em>Forbes<\/em>. \u201cI was like, \u2018No, you don\u2019t mean that it won\u2019t scale. You mean it won\u2019t make as much money as . . . ,\u2019 and she kind of hemmed and hawed a little. And we moved on. I think I made my point. . . . They are businesspeople, they are good businesspeople. They just represent a set of business practices, principles and ethics, and policies that I don\u2019t necessarily agree with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for Meta said in a statement to <em>Fortune<\/em> that the company has been talking about incorporating ads into WhatsApp for years, and added that the new ad features won\u2019t interrupt users\u2019 chats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe think this reflects how people want to use WhatsApp and means if you just you WhatsApp to send personal messages to friends and family, nothing changes,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>This story was originally featured on <a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2025\/06\/16\/whatsapp-ads-cofounders-jan-koum-brian-acton\/\" target=\"_blank\">Fortune.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The cofounders of WhatsApp resisted ads in the app for years, including after the company was acquired by Meta for $22 billion in 2014.\u00a0 Brian Acton and Jan Koum left the company in 2017 and 2018, respectively, and on Monday Meta introduced ads in the \u201cStatus\u201d feature as well as sponsored Channels in the the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":329,"featured_media":15552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>WhatsApp introduces ads, fulfilling a plan its cofounders hated so much they left over it | Unlock Informed Choices with Us<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Cofounders Brian Acton and Jan Koum once promised \u201cabsolutely no ads\u201d in WhatsApp. Meta won..\" \/>\n<meta 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