Has anyone here gone to the Facebook marketing summit? What’s that like?<p>When they announce the intention to put more ads into the app, do people cheer?
WhatsApp is my primary messaging app, time to switch over to something else. It can go fuck itself sideways if FB starts adding ads.<p>Some years ago there was the option of paying, which was removed around 2016. I understand that not everybody cares about this, but PLEASE give me the option not to see ads. There's enough bullshit advertising in my life already<p>[] <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/18/whatsapp-drops-subscription-fee-free" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/18/whatsapp-...</a>
Here's a blog post from WhatsApp in 2012 on why they don't sell ads:<p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120619170843/http://blog.whatsapp.com/index.php/2012/06/why-we-dont-sell-ads/" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20120619170843/http://blog.whats...</a>
> While ads themselves aren’t exactly the most welcome inclusion, this will be a much-preferred method than intrusive banner ads.<p>There's no reason to believe it'll stop here.<p>Instagram was ad-free for quite some time. Now every third or fourth post is a big, unmissable ad. Same thing in stories.
It's always funny to remember that the smartest people currently alive are probably in some FAANG office figuring out how to monetize online platforms through whatever means possible.
Good, that will maybe drive more people to alternate platforms. The only reason I have it installed at all is that my non techie friends insist on using it for whatever reason. It's not like I have a shortage of similarly capable chat & call apps installed on my phone.<p>E.g. Signal is pretty much there in terms of capabilities to take over. All that's needed is a gentle nudge. Some ads should help for that.
Why can't they just carry on charging people like they used to.
Greed + middle management stupidity.<p>Someone at Facebook is proud of their smartness and will probably get a title like Senior Manager for messaging advertising.<p>The trouble with switching IM is that everyone needs to switch as well.
In Europe, they're not going to use data from your FB account to show ads, right?<p>Given that last year they agreed not to share data <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/14/17120446/whatsapp-user-data-sharing-facebook-uk-privacy-ico-protection-gdpr-europe" rel="nofollow">https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/14/17120446/whatsapp-user-da...</a>