WhatsApp monetization begins, potentially adding $15B+ annual revenue from Meta Platforms, Inc.'s nearly 3B global users. Click for my META stock update.

The launch upends its founders’ original mission of creating an app with ‘No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks!’ This week, WhatsApp did something its founders said it would never do: it’s putting advertisements inside the app. It ends WhatsApp’s decade-plus run of offering an ad-free messaging and calling experience.

Meta is adding three ad features to WhatsApp. This represents the company’s most significant monetization push for the messaging platform, which has become a global communication standard across multiple continents.

Meta has officially announced plans to introduce advertisements to WhatsApp, nearly 11 years after acquiring the messaging platform in a $19 billion deal.

Meta has announced major changes to WhatsApp’s Updates tab, introducing three new features aimed at helping creators, organizations, and businesses

While privacy concerns have made monetizing the app a challenge, Meta is again betting on ads to address its revenue goals.

WhatsApp's new Channel discovery tools and in-app promotions mark a shift toward monetizing messaging, with rollout in over 150 countries and a focus on business use.

Meta has begun rolling out ads in WhatsApp’s Updates tab, formerly a sleepy space populated by Status updates and the new-ish Channels feature, and it’s about to change how brands and consumers interact in one of the most personal spaces on the Indian internet.