Here comes advertising on WhatsApp: it will be in 'status'

Here comes advertising on WhatsApp, a breakthrough for Meta's app which until now was the only one of the great galaxy of users made alongside Instagram and Facebook to have done without it. It is a shift that fits, in effect, into the evolution that has taken place in WhatsApp. Which in recent years has added the 'updates' tab to its main service, chat and groups with friends and colleagues.

That is a world that resembles Instagram in the experience of stories, but populated by our phone contacts with 'states'. More private and with a very wide generational composition. Underneath the states, there are channels. We sign up for updates from our favourite newspaper, from institutions, football teams, people we follow. Here, it is in this 'updates' tab that advertising will now arrive.

In a call with journalists it was explained by Meta that statuses and channels are now used by 1.5 billion people worldwide.

Companies will now be able to advertise their channel from the channel list, as seen in the image in this article. And place ads in stories with the same format as in Instagram.

A company can reach new customers with the adv and integrate within the adv in the 'statuses' the link to direct chat, to start a conversation or ask for information.