WhatsApp continues to receive new features and functions. For example, we recently said that an e-mail verification feature would come to the application. However, there is a problem for Meta, the owner of the application. WhatsApp is a free application that does not bring any profit to the company. For this reason, rumors about advertising coming to the platform have been around for a long time. Finally, the company’s president, Will Cathcart, asked: “Will WhatsApp be paid or show ads?” He answered questions like.

Be prepared to see ads while using WhatsApp

First of all, let’s start with the question of whether WhatsApp will be paid or not. No, the app is currently not ad-supported in any case. However, a step was taken to make this paid. Will Cathcart announced that there will be no ads in the chat section of the app, but they plan to show ads in the Status and Channels sections.

We have no information on how to display ads in the channels section. However, thanks to Instagram, we have information about the Status section. As we get used to the social media platform, we will see ads in status format when switching between promotions. This is an unfortunate development for an absolutely free platform. The real question is what might happen next.

As you know, many platforms that were once free and made money from advertising revenues are now implementing other strategies. They charge users a monthly fee for their services. Instead, they offer their users additional features such as being ad-free. For example, we can show YouTube and Premium subscription as the most suitable platform for this tariff.

Of course, this is all speculation, but there is the potential for WhatsApp to announce a similar paid subscription. Users will choose between the ad-supported package and the Premium package. The company will both earn money from each user and have the logic of direct billing. Time will tell whether this scenario will come true.