Blog: WhatsApp

Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the entertainment world. Check out the latest insight from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage areas - music, entertainment and fandom, creator economy and social.

Ads in WhatsApp Stories: is this the next ad frontier in social?

Cover image for Ads in WhatsApp Stories: is this the next ad frontier in social?

Hanna Kahlert

20 Jun 2025

Business Strategy

Meta has announced that it will be rolling out ads in WhatsApp’s ‘updates’ tab. This marks a move to monetise what has, up until now, been a platform with not so impressive revenue to report. A major issue for WhatsApp is that, as a direct messaging platform, it has been very difficult to mone...

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Live isn’t dead, it just needs a WhatsApp group: why gatekeeping is due for a comeback

Cover image for Live isn’t dead, it just needs a WhatsApp group: why gatekeeping is due for a comeback

Hanna Kahlert

12 Jun 2025

Cultural trends

The live scene is, allegedly, in an uphill battle. Festivals face cancellations, travel costs are rising, and grassroots venues are struggling. Success stories like the ‘Eras’ tour and the Oasis reunion boosted year-on-year stats within the industry, but is this a sign of long-term growth or mer...

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DeepSeek and Rednote signal the dawning era of APAC

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Hanna Kahlert

29 Jan 2025

Business Strategy

The AI race is a tense one. Billions of dollars have been poured into the likes of OpenAI. Meanwhile, the US and UK governments, among others, have pledged to invest heavily in AI development, suggesting that they feel it is of critical importance to “win” the new space race.

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Why the rise of a (former) political leader in the ranks of Meta spells regulatory compromise ahead

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Hanna Kahlert

17 Feb 2022

This Wednesday, Nick Clegg – former MP and deputy Prime Minister of the UK – was promoted to President of Global Affairs at Meta, reporting directly to Mark Zuckerberg himself. According to Zuckerberg, “Nick will now lead our company on all our policy matters, including how we interact with go...

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Instagram drops the Like and WhatsApp defends privacy in India: Facebook’s PR reinvention

Cover image for Instagram drops the Like and WhatsApp defends privacy in India: Facebook’s PR reinvention

Hanna Kahlert

27 May 2021

Facebook is now old enough that there are teenagers on it that are younger than it is. In the time that it has been around, it has reinvented social media . It has also had to do some reinventing of itself, adding to its portfolio image-sharing app Instagram and end-to-end encrypted messaging servic...

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Why Did Facebook’s EPL Rights Deal Collapse?

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Alistair Taylor

15 Mar 2019

The English Premier League (EPL) is now back on the market with its rights for Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam following its deal with Facebook collapsing. Back in July 2018 , the social media giant acquired the exclusive rights to stream 380 EPL matches in the Asian territories for $265 millio...

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WhatsApp Is Open for Business (Finally)

Georgia Meyer

8 Aug 2018

Four years after Facebook purchased WhatsApp for $19 billion, the ubiquitous messaging app is ramping up its revenue potential with the launch last week of a suite of business tools and new advertising inventory on the app.

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How Tencent is Successfully Monetising a Messaging App Ecosystem

Alistair Taylor

6 Jul 2018

digital content

Chinese tech giant Tencent, the company that 12 months ago you probably were not paying attention to, is now the second largest messaging app ecosystem globally, behind Facebook. Tencent is the only company currently monetising its digital consumer base effectively.

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IGTV and How To Make Video Work in The Messaging App Ecosystem

Tim Mulligan

26 Jun 2018

The rise of the messaging app ecosystem over the previous seven years has created a profound challenge for premium video production companies. There are tight creative limitations that come with creating content for the smaller real estate of a smart phone screen and creating non-intrusive content o...

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What’s in a Log-In? Social Platform Wars 2018

Zach Fuller

15 Jun 2018

Snap Inc has launched an alternative to the ubiquitous ‘log-in with Facebook’ offer, which commands the paucity of visual real estate available on app screens. This follows Snap’s recent announcement of development tools designed to open up the app to anyone wishing to build features, much in ...

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Facebook Has Got An Instagram Problem

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Mark Mulligan

1 Feb 2018

Facebook messenger

Mark Zuckerberg dropped a bit of bombshell during the Q4 2017 earnings call. He announced that Facebook daily active users (DAUs) have fallen across some key markets, including the US. COO Sheryl Sandberg elaborated: “In the US and Canada, these changes contributed to a DAU decline of 700,000 comp...

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Quick Take: Facebook Deprioritises Publishers

Zach Fuller

12 Jan 2018

Facebook has once again updated its news feed and in the tradition of its tense relationship with content creators, it does not appear to favour publishers. It is worth viewing such a move in the context of Mark Zuckerberg’s annual resolutions.

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Facebook Gets Further Into Premium Sports Content

Tim Mulligan

30 Jun 2017

The UEFA Champions League is coming to Facebook for the 2017-2018 season. Facebook is partnering with Fox Sports to live stream next season’s games starting in September, via the TV network’s Facebook pages.

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Social Commerce: Facebook’s Next Act?

Zach Fuller

26 Jan 2017

Discussions abound in tech circles over where Facebook will go next. Much in the same way as Apple’s definitive strategy in the past two decades can be interpreted through their services embellishing the company’s hardware products, (though a slowdown in iPhone sales could potentially alter this...

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Facebook The Media Company: If It Looks Like A Duck

Mark Mulligan

22 Dec 2016

Facebook Media Company

facebook media strategy

Yesterday Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg finally confirmed that Facebook is a media company , not a traditional one, but a media company nonetheless. This is something we've been thinking about a lot at MIDiA, so much so in fact that we have just publishedan entire report on the subject: "Facebook T...

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WhatsApp Drops Annual Fee As It Hits 990 Million Users – Next Stop: Monetization

Karol Severin

18 Jan 2016

The CEO of WhatsApp, Jan Koum, announced in Munich that WhatsApp now has 990million users. There have been many talks about Facebook overpaying for WhatsApp. However, it managed to double its user base since the acquisition and played a significant role in helping Facebook dominate the mobile messag...

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Chart Of The Week: Facebook The Full Stack Internet Company

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Mark Mulligan

11 Jan 2016

Chart Of The Week

Facebook has 1.4 billion monthly active users, up by 58% since Q3 2013. Quite simply, Facebook is big and is getting bigger. But the metrics only tell part of the story. Since its inception in 2004 as a networking tool for college kids, Facebook has gone on to become one of the true internet giants.

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Facebook Doubles Down On Messaging With Messenger Bots

Karol Severin

7 Jan 2016

Facebook released a Chat SDK to a limited group of developers allowing them to build official bots on Messenger. When users message these ‘official accounts’, bots can immediately reply with further product information, pricing, location, buy buttons etc.

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Quick Take: Facebook’s Notify Builds An Ecosystem In Your Notification Feed

Karol Severin

13 Nov 2015

Facebook has launched app notification aggregator Notify. It allows users to follow a range of categories or ‘stations’ and receive notifications with relevant content from a large array of content publishers.

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