Users of the chat application Facebook Messenger around the world will see advertisements on their home screens by the end of the year. The information regarding the advertisements’ worldwide roll out came from Facebook Messenger’s head of product, Stan Chudnovsky. Putting advertisements on Messenger’s home screen allows the social media giant to monetize the service that is currently being accessed by 1.2 billion users. Users should expect advertisements that are similar to what has been observed in Australia and Thailand last January. An example is carousel-like advertisements on their home screens. These advertisements will complement the Sponsored Messages that is already seen in home screens for some users. The key difference between the two is that the home screen ads will be available to all advertisers while the Sponsored Messages will be limited to companies that the users have interacted with in the past.
Messenger’s choice of using advertisements to monetize its services is in stark contrast with how other successful chat applications like LINE and WeChat are doing. Other chat services choose to facilitate commercial transactions through the applications and in return, these services receive a sum of money for every accomplished transaction. Meanwhile, Messenger banks on its parent company’s expertise in digital advertising in order to deliver ads to users that are suitable for their demographics and location. While the advertisements will likely be limited to the mobile version of the service, it is likely that the advertisements may appear on the desktop version if the ads are well-received by the users.
The social media giant’s renewed efforts to monetize its services is related to its expected stagnation in terms of user growth in the current fiscal year. The lack of new users will result in slower revenue growth for the company unless it finds new ways to earn money from its services. Aside from advertisements, the social network company has also included a Discover Tab into the Messenger application. The aforementioned feature aggregates the chatbots developed by different brands and services. These chatbots are being utilized by third-party companies like telecommunications companies and media firms to communicate with consumers and offer potential products.