Businesses the first to be forced to pay for some features

Sep 6, 2017 08:52 GMT  ·  By

Facebook is planning a series of monetization systems for mobile messaging service WhatsApp, including premium features for business users and ads for free users.

Seen by many as a way to recover the $22 billion that Facebook spent to purchase WhatsApp three years ago, this approach would have the social network charge companies for features that businesses can use to get in touch with customers.

Earlier this year, WhatsApp rolled out verified accounts for businesses, but it’s not yet clear at this point if this particular verification process would be charged or not. Facebook is expected to roll out a statement on Tuesday in order to detail how it plans to monetize WhatsApp.

"We want to put a basic foundation in place to allow people to message businesses and for them to get the responses that they want. We do intend on charging businesses in the future,” WhatsApp's chief operating officer, Matt Idema, was quoted as saying by FoxBusiness.

Ads for free users not ruled out

As it turns out, several large companies are already test-driving WhatsApp’s new premium features, including those in Brazil, Europe, India, and Indonesia. There is no target date for the debut of the new monetization system, Idema explained, but Facebook is very committed to cashing in on its messaging service, especially in terms of business use.

One particular area of focus is how to make money out of WhatsApp running on consumer devices. It turns out that Facebook is currently considering bringing ads for free users as well, though a decision in this regard is yet to be made.

The aforementioned source says “Idema didn’t rule out that WhatsApp could show ads to users,” as the company’s focus right now is to find an effective way to make money with its premium features for businesses.

WhatsApp currently has more than 1.3 billion active users worldwide, and the application is available cross platform, including on iOS, Android, and Windows 10 Mobile.