Facebook decides against selling ads on WhatsApp

After news about Facebook selling ads on WhatsApp, reports now suggest that the social media platform has reportedly decided against it.

According to reports, WhatsApp in recent months disbanded a team that had been established to find the best ways to integrate ads into the service. 

Interestingly, it was the same controversial plan that forced founders of the mobile messaging service Brian Acton and Jan Koum, to quit nearly two years ago. WhatsApp co-founder Acton left the company in 2017, and CEO Jan Koum in August, over their differences with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg who aimed to monetise on WhatsApp by introducing ads between chats.

Both Acton and Koum reportedly didn’t want WhatsApp to become a platform full of ads. In an earlier interview with a leading magazine, Acton explained that a disagreement on monetising WhatsApp was the reason he quit Facebook and gave up $850 million on the table. “At the end of the day, I sold my company. I sold my users’ privacy. I made a choice and a compromise. I live with that every day,” Acton reportedly said.

He alleged that Zuckerberg was in a rush to make money from the messaging service and undermine elements of its encryption technology. “Targeted advertising is what makes me unhappy,” Acton added. Facebook bought WhatsApp for $22 billion in 2014. 

*Edited from an IANS report.