WhatsApp plans to launch a new advertising model in the coming months. In Romania, experts point out that digital intimacy is already worth hundreds of thousands of euros per day, in a system where revenues circulate through global platforms without clear local reporting and without effective regulations.
WhatsApp has officially announced that it will introduce commercials and monetization options in “Updates”, Which includes Status and Channels. The commercials will appear exclusively in this section, “Far from private conversations”and messages, calls and groups will remain encrypted end-to-end. “To show relevant commercials, we will only use limited information: the country, the city, the language, the channels pursued and the interactions with the ads“, The company said on the official blog. Meta stressed that she will not sell and shared the phone number with the advertisers.
The Irish Data Protection Commission has confirmed to Politico that the new model will not be implemented in the EU earlier than 2026.
How much is the digital intimacy in Romania?
Until then, questions about digital intimacy and profit continue to increase. “The digital intimacy in the sense as practical, not metaphorically as possible, in the case of Romania is worth around 800,000 euros per day, so is the estimated value of the automatic programming trading, at the level of Romania, in the global digital platforms. Locally, they have no interest in transparent income.explains for the truth, the digital entrepreneur and the president of Brat, Dragoș Stanca.
Meta lives from commercials. And from your data?
WhatsApp is part of Meta, a company that has almost exclusively revenues generated by advertising. “And we are talking about huge revenues, more precisely revenues of over $ 160 billion a year (ie 440 million dollars a day, both cost the attention of humanity in platforms such as Instagram and Facebook). From the users’ point of view it is good and correct to be informed and to make our own decisions. Eventually, if we do not want to pay the service with our data. Channels that do not use the data in targeting.he adds.
In his opinion, in terms of meta’s official statements, “Theoretically, we do not know if practical”personal data will not be used in this new advertising product and Meta will use only general data related to the language used, the territory in which we are present, with the generalized data application, not Hyper target. “If it is true or not, we cannot check, we must operate on the trust. In principle it is true that no one can see what we are talking about on WhatsApp, for example, outside the person-person. It is an end-to-end incredited discussion, that is, from the phone to the phone. But Meta has not proven so far that it is a company that puts ethics on the forefront and never lies. He has always shown that he puts the decisions that help his profitability in the first place, this is the only constant in the company’s history. But as for all it is a start, with optimism, to hope that the new Meta product will respect the rights of users in the European Union and the related legislation here ”says Dragoș Stanca.
Advertisements only in stories, not in messages
About the exact form that this new product will take, explains Steffen Heringhaus, the founder of Five Elements. Which sees an opportunity for some types of business, especially in the lifestyle area, where, according to it, the meta products work efficiency “From what we know so far, WhatsApp intends to display ads in Stories, similar to what is already happening on Facebook and Instagram. (…) If Meta has announced that she did not introduce these commercials in the EU by 2026, it means she will first test in other markets. This puts us a little waiting, as if in the case of AI. I think users should be able to choose: an account paid without advertising or a free, with advertisements. To oblige a business to provide services without monetization I do not think it makes Europe an attractive market for investments and innovation. The amounts needed for a social network or a LLM are huge, and in Europe they are difficult to find. Overall, I think for the ecosystem it would be a good thing ”he says, for the truth, the entrepreneur.
“When there is advertising, you, the user, are the product”
Before WhatsApp was purchased by Facebook, in 2024, the co -founder of the application, Jan Koum, published an article on the blog of the company in which he clearly expressed his disgust for commercials. The article is still available and becomes even more interesting now, when WhatsApp is preparing to integrate exactly what his founder rejected, in a recent article, journalist Paul Thurrott.
“Advertising does not only mean that it ruins aesthetics, it is insulting to your intelligence and a distraction of thoughts. In every company that sells advertisements, an important part of the team of engineers spends their day by optimizing data extraction, writing code for collecting personal data, modernizing the servers that store them and ensuring that everything is registered, sorted, sliced and delivered … and in the end, the result is a slightly different advertising banner or on your phone. Remember: When there is advertising, you, the user, you are the product“, Koum wrote.
Koum left WhatsApp in 2018 and later withdrew from the Facebook Board of Directors. Seven years later, the commercials are going to reach WhatsApp.
