Whatsapp boss critical of heavy ad placements

In a recent blog entry aptly entitled, ‘Why we don’t use ads’, co-founder of Whatsapp, Jan Koum, discusses why he and co-founder Brian Acton refuse to use ads in their popular messaging app.

Forming the basis of the theme of the blog, the entry opens with a powerful quote from Fight Club’s Tyler Durden, who explains ‘Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need.”

After their 20 years of experience at Yahoo!, Koum explains that they never wanted Whatsapp to be “just another ad clearinghouse” because “no one wakes up excited to see more advertising, no one goes to sleep thinking about the ads they’ll see tomorrow.”

In short, advertising doesn’t affect consumers in the way a decent app that improves their life can, and even if consumers have to pay for it, they will, especially if it means they aren’t bombarded by ads left, right and centre. The quality of the product is the thing that all brands should focus on first and foremost.

“We know people go to sleep excited about who they chatted with that day (and disappointed about who they didn’t),” Koum explains, “We want WhatsApp to be the product that keeps you awake.”