Facebook to Show Ads on Messenger to Bolster Revenue Growth

https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-to-show-ads-on-messenger-to-bolster-revenue-growth-1499790600

by JumpCrisscross • 9 years ago

50 67 9 years ago

wsj.com

LeoNatan25• 9 years ago

Once I see those, I will finally remove the last app I have from this wretched company. Good riddance.

Sir_Substance4• 9 years ago

Excellent, this will make it much easier for me to persuade people to jump ship!

acchow3• 9 years ago

What's the realistic alternative? Don't say Signal, because I'm sure your friends have plenty of friends that don't have Signal.

Apocryphon• 9 years ago

Slack? Messenger seems to be stealing features from it the same way Instagram has been with Snapchat.

lettergram• 9 years ago

You wouldn't believe how many people I've switched to signal...

Hell I even just went ahead and installed signal on my families + extended families phones. Now we all use it, and no one is the wiser.

greglindahl• 9 years ago

If no one's going to install any new apps, then there is no realistic alternative.

Sir_Substance4• 9 years ago

SMS, because in most places local SMS is free.

If that bothers you, other options I use on the regular include Skype, Steam, Wickr, Mattermost, Slack, email and XMPP.

XMPP's federated nature makes it ideal for this kind of thing, but people liked the integrated nature of Facebook back in XMPP's hayday. As Facebook poisons each component of their own product, that integrated nature gets less attractive. I know one person specifically who only uses Facebook for messenger these days. This will give me an opportunity to help him leave. I don't mind what he picks to replace it as long as it doesn't require me to surrender personal data to use, and there's a rich selection of options to choose from.

I know that's not good enough for you, I can think of a few people like you just based on your tone.

I stopped using Facebook in ~2009, and when I did, about 95% of the people I knew swapped right back to skype without an issue, but 5% never initiated conversation with me again, because they were so completely consumed by Facebook they'd forgotten how to even remember people without it. I occasionally hit them up via other people just to keep in touch, but ultimately it's not my job to try to give them perspective.

minimaxir• 9 years ago

Facebook will be screwed once everyone jumps ship to WhatsApp in protest.

callesgg• 9 years ago

They own WhatsApp.

adrenalinelol• 9 years ago

Really?? Source please! /s

bookmarkacc• 9 years ago

Or Instagram. Oh wait...

gordon_freeman2• 9 years ago

Why Facebook will be screwed? If I understand it correctly whatsapp is owned by Facebook and also can introduce similar features of messenger any time. So migration of users from one app to another should not be a problem for Facebook. Right?

mrkrabo2• 9 years ago

Yes you're right, the joke went right over your head.

skinnymuch3• 9 years ago

OP was being sarcastic in case you missed it. Your reasoning being the point :). FB owning the two largest messaging apps helps quite a bit.

Spivak3• 9 years ago

I actually think this is a pretty good strategy for Facebook. All of the people that care will move to WhatsApp and all of the people that don't will stay on messenger and earn the money. Seems like pretty much a win-win.

prezjordan• 9 years ago

My dystopian view of the future is one where bots will show up in your Messenger conversation and offer you deals "Hey I heard you guys were hungry, here's $2 off your next Chipotle order!" and people won't mind as long as their getting a deal.

llukas• 9 years ago

In dystopian future they wont get $2 off but restaurant they go to increases price just for them.

Spivak3• 9 years ago

I'm actually pretty surprised restaurants haven't tried a surge pricing model yet.

Simulacra5• 9 years ago

Sounds like something out of Daemon.

zethraeus• 9 years ago

This already happens. The bots aren't inline as chat messages, but they're contextually aware ads like 'get an uber!'

Gys• 9 years ago

In my dystopian view you actually talk, but only to one bot. 99% of your time. He or she is the most amazing, knowledgable, kind, funny and friendly person you know. Your best friend ever. All other communication (with bots of other people and companies, most likely) is going through this one person.

Your only choice is wether this friend is controlled by Google, Apple, Facebook or Amazon.

Simulacra5• 9 years ago

You've met my ex?

mercer• 9 years ago

Have you seen the movie Her? It's a nice exploration of this idea.

quadrangle• 9 years ago

What a nice fantasy you have that we could have some time left without that. Too late though. It's ALREADY HERE.

http://www.npr.org/2014/06/16/322597862/how-retailers-use-sm...

mkagenius3• 9 years ago

Its difficult enough to have two different apps for facebook. If you don't install messenger you can't see messages in the native facebook app -- what kind of regressive technology is this?

samfisher832• 9 years ago

You can't even use messenger on the mobile version of the site. That really annoys me.

mrkrabo2• 9 years ago

https://mbasic.facebook.com

ClassyJacket• 9 years ago

I'm very glad Facebook and Messenger aren't the same app. They do different things and I'd hate to only be able to use one at a time, or have the chat UI compromised to shoehorn it into Facebook.

mkagenius3• 9 years ago

Make the messenger work in both the apps, why force people?

osrec3• 9 years ago

Yet another reason to uninstall Facebook, if you haven't done so already. I want a social network that lets me be social when I want, without forcing it down my throat (never ending birthday notifications were the final straw for me).

notananthem• 9 years ago

..its in messenger, which is a required separate install, that I don't install, so I'm safe

zeep• 9 years ago

The website is pretty bad too, but ads are easy to block and it gives Facebook less rights on your device (as opposed to native app).

osrec3• 9 years ago

It's an option, but now I just use WhatsApp. I have a small number of groups for the people I care about, and now that WhatsApp has better archiving, I find it quite a pleasant user experience. I can even see photos someone shared to my group more than a year ago. I find Facebook redundant, because I don't aspire to be a pseudo-celebrity amongst people who hardly know me!

Simulacra5• 9 years ago

I can't use Facebook with all the ads and noise. I've blocked mine down to just the news feed, everything else goes away. Much cleaner and easier to use.

austenallred• 9 years ago

You can turn notifications off...

osrec3• 9 years ago

I tried, but the birthday notifications kept coming (Galaxy Note 4). Then started the "Person A has posted after a long time", or the even more general "Person A has uploaded a photo". Each time, my mental response to each notification was "So what?!"

patrickaljord• 9 years ago

How dare they monetize a free service with ads?

CodeWriter232• 9 years ago

Yes they should get the money from selling your BigData profile AND pushing ads in your face.

gshakir• 9 years ago

I don't use Facebook or Messenger. I am glad that I am not on it. I just have to figure out how to get out of WhatsApp. I also noticed that Facebook eco system is becoming more closed (no access to Facebook pages unless you sign up etc) on trying to get more people on it.

skinnymuch3• 9 years ago

They were going to want to monetize Messenger eventually. I doubt it'll be too many ads since they have other ways to monetize Messenger too. Stickers aren't the same outside the east.

Smerity• 9 years ago

Facebook are getting straight up annoying when it comes to their ads. The worst for me is their in feed video player. When an ad appears on a video, you can't like, comment, or share the video[1]. You're going to break my flow of using your own site so you can giddily inform advertisers that I paid more attention to their ad?

I think Facebook have rapidly transitioned to an ad first, rather than user first, experience.

[1]: Screenshot - http://imgur.com/a/hCxOT

chaostheory• 9 years ago

I'm surprised it took them this long. It makes sense unless they charge for API access instead

bonoetmalo• 9 years ago

We gotta blacklist pay wall sites from HN.

intrasight• 9 years ago

You've got a smartphone so you've got a browser. No need for Messenger.

dijit• 9 years ago

They block messages on the mobile site.

To bypass it you have to go on someone's profile and tell your phone to request a desktop site. Then it works.

51stpage• 9 years ago

I'd try https://mbasic.facebook.com

It's mobile centric, browser based and gives you access to Messenger. Also, doesnt require the "hack" of requesting the desktop site (which may or may not work.) The trade-off is that lots of automatic Javascripty things don't work the same way.

It's worked well for me.

parthdesai• 9 years ago

Try firefox if you have android. :)

Mahn• 9 years ago

I wonder whether Ads are an appropriate way to monetize messaging apps. It's such a fundamentally different context from just mindlessly browsing the news feed on Facebook or Instagram. I'm sure FB has done their testing but, ads in an utility app that you want as little in your way as possible like Messenger or WhatsApp still strike me as something odd.

mankash666• 9 years ago

And then WhatsApp, the app can be killed, rebranded and re-skinned as FB messenger, and still retain the promise to customers and regulators about not advertising or monitoring communication

Simulacra5• 9 years ago

I've avoided Messenger and the Facebook app altogether. I've come to accept that my data is being sucked up, and it's a necessary evil, but I just don't want their apps on my phone. At least give me that in life.

ravenstine• 9 years ago

Already uninstalled Facebook, now I'm uninstalling Messenger. Too bad because messenger's not that bad but not worth getting ads from. Even Facebook is too milktoast at this point to even waste time reading their ads for.

CodeWriter232• 9 years ago

I got real busy working on a project and dumped Facebook about 4 months ago in a ruthless mission to delete all distractions. I haven't really missed it. I can call or text anyone whom I really want to speak to. And when I text comments or photos to a group SMS, I know Facebook isn't filtering it.

Facebook to Show Ads on Messenger to Bolster Revenue Growth

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