Facebook Messenger has grown in its 5 or so years in its existence from its integration in Facebook Chat to a standalone app that has its own platform and unique features. It has voice calling, video calling, its own virtual assistant, money transfer, app integration, Uber integration and much more. It is almost as big as its sibling, WhatsApp, with an impressive 800 million active users so it is one messaging app and you cannot afford to ignore it.
Messenger was deemed to be 1% complete and you can’t argue from the slew of updates it has received over the year. The issue of monetization of the platform has often popped up from time to time due to its relatively high number of active users and it seems this will happen thanks to a leaked document.
According to TechCrunch, they were able to obtain a document that was sent to some of the biggest advertisers that work with Facebook. This document hinted that these businesses will be able to send ads as messages while chatting with their customers. When TechCrunch reached to Facebook regarding the ads issue on Messenger, they issued a statement:
“We don’t comment on rumour or speculation. That said, our aim with Messenger is to create a high quality, engaging experience for 800 million people around the world, and that includes ensuring people do not experience unwanted messages of any type.”
Ads usually dim the experience of an app, especially if they are intrusive and Facebook clearly wants to avoid a situation like that from happening. We only have to wait and see what the company has in store for the big monetization of Messenger and also WhatsApp as they seek to further increase their revenue net even wider.
