As WhatsApp advertising backtracks on old promises to users and Amazon’s CEO shares his vision for the future, here are the news stories that caught our attention this week.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently shared his thoughts on generative AI in an internal company memo, later published on the Amazon blog. He framed generative AI as not just a productivity tool, but also a core driver of the Amazon customer experience, operational efficiency and organisational structure. He urged everyone at the company to lean in and adapt.
The memo outlined Jassy’s vision for how generative AI is reshaping Amazon’s business and what it means for employees. His key points include:
He said: “While we’ve made a lot of progress, we’re still at the relative beginning. There are a few reasons we believe this and want to go even faster.” He said he expects AI agents will change how we all work and live. For Amazon, they will change the scope and speed at which it can innovate for customers. “We're going to keep pushing to operate like the world’s largest start-up - customer-obsessed, inventive, fast-moving, lean, scrappy, and full of missionaries trying to build something better for customers and a business that outlasts us all.”
Meta-owned WhatsApp this week began to run adverts in the status feature within WhatsApp’s Updates tab, ending years of speculation about if and when this might happen and finally saying farewell to the original founders’ promise to deliver an ad-free, privacy-focused experience.
The ads appear in the Updates tab on the left of the app screen, so they are kept separate from the main chat conversation area. Nikilaa Srinivasan, VP Product Management at Meta, commented on LinkedIn: “Big WhatsApp news: we’re adding tools to the Updates tab to help people find creators and businesses they are interested in and help businesses of all sizes grow. And best of all, we’re doing it with privacy front of mind.”
Other plans include channel subscriptions, where people can support a channel by subscribing for updates, and promoted channels to increase a channel's visibility to potential subscribers. Meta is reassuring users that their privacy and security will be unaffected because advertising will be confined to one small area of the app. Srinivasan said : “These new features will all roll out in the Updates tab, away from personal chats - using the Updates tab and seeing these ads is entirely optional. And as always, personal messages, photos, Status updates, and calls remain end-to-end encrypted, ensuring your data stays private and secure.”
In truth, Meta’s decision should come as no surprise. Meta has owned WhatsApp for over a decade. As we know, Meta’s business model is advertising based, so it’s simply pulling WhatsApp into the fold. Meta wants to leverage WhatsApp’s 2.8 billion-user base to generate new ad revenue. Meta has earmarked roughly $72 billion for AI R&D and compute over the next few years, and needs fresh revenue sources to support this investment. In addition, WhatsApp Business already drives a $10 billion-per-year API business by charging enterprises for customer conversations.
WhatsApp’s original battlecry was “No ads! No games! No gimmicks!”, and some users have taken to platforms like Reddit to express their disappointment at this latest turn of events. For its part, Meta is reassuring users that their privacy and security will be unaffected because advertising will be confined to one small area of the app. But whether users ultimately accept ads in Updates and Channels will depend on Meta’s transparency and restraint in rolling out further promotional content.
