From companies and their content, hyper-photogenic Instagram pictures, and of course, memes galore, the social sphere can be a crowded place.
But not WhatsApp. While we may have 10,000 ‘friends’ on Facebook, 20,000 followers on Instagram, think we can all agree the comparatively scarce contacts on our favorite mobile messenger since BBM, is far more valuable (to most of us).
So the thought of that party being crashed by a group of hungry co-corporations is not the fondest of prospects. But we knew this was coming since Facebook’s $19 billion dollar acquisition of the platform in 2014. That’s more than $40 per user at the time. The Messenger announced they hit 1 billion daily active users back in July, in case you were wondering.
On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook’s finally gearing up for monetization. A pilot program wherein verified businesses would feature is green badge is already being tested.
Whatsapp acknowledged in a blog post on Tuesday, that they will commence testing features with the aim of bettering experiences all around, claiming ”We’re building and testing new tools via a free WhatsApp Business app for small companies and an enterprise solution for bigger companies operating at a large scale with a global base of customers, like airlines, e-commerce sites, and banks.”
In a WSJ interview, Chief Operating Officer Matt Idema confirmed that businesses would be a source of revenue; stating: “We do intend on charging businesses in the future,”
The mechanics of it, and more importantly whether or not businesses can get in touch with you without permission are still up in the air, however.
We guess only time will tell. Â Please be nice WhatsApp.