Madhurima
SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook has not abandoned its plans to serve ads on its instant messaging service WhatsApp, the media reported.
Users may even see these ads on the platform after Facebook completes its multi-year effort to link all its social media platforms, as per a report in the Information on Thursday.
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Serving targeted ads on the platform might be a challenge because it provides end-to-end encryption which allows only the sender and the recipient of the messages to view the content, barring others, including WhatsApp, to look at the content.
Facebook plans to unravel the matter by finding a "match" for WhatsApp numbers in Facebook accounts, as per the report.
The plan has reportedly not gone down well with a number of its executives who fear that this move may lead some users to delete their Facebook account.
Reports of plans about using Facebook data for serving ads on WhatsApp earlier also created controversies.
Facebook announced its intention to bring advertising to Status, WhatsApp's version of Stories in 2018.
A report from the Wall Street Journal in January this year said that the social networking giant had put WhatsApp advertising "on ice".
The new details revealed by the information suggests that Facebook has decided to monetise WhatsApp, which has over two billions users globally, still holds.
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A report in Engadget quoted a Facebook spokesperson as confirming that "ads in Status remains a long-term opportunity for WhatsApp."
