WASHINGTON – Facebook responds over media reports of advertisement featureon messaging app WhatsApp.
Facebook has reportedly decided not to sell ads on WhatsApp – acontroversial plan that forced Brian Acton and Jan Koum, who founded themobile messaging service, to quit nearly two years ago.
WhatsApp in recent months disbanded a team that had been established tofind the best ways to integrate ads into the service. Facebook boughtWhatsApp for $22 billion in 2014.
“The team’s work was then deleted from WhatsApp’s code,” a report says,quoting people familiar with the matter.
WhatsApp co-founder Acton left the company in 2017, and CEO Jan Koum inAugust, over their differences with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg who aimedto monetize WhatsApp by introducing ads between chats.
Both Acton and Koum never wanted WhatsApp to become a platform that forcedads on to users.
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In an earlier interview with Forbes, Acton explained that a disagreement onmonetising WhatsApp was the reason he quit Facebook and gave up $850million on the table.
“At the end of the day, I sold my company. I sold my users’ privacy. I madea choice and a compromise. I live with that every day,” Acton said.
He alleged that Zuckerberg was in a rush to make money from the messagingservice and undermine elements of its encryption technology.
