A week ago, Meta Group presented its third quarter financial results. And as we mentioned in a previous publication, the group's revenues reached $40.589 billion, an increase of 19% year-on-year. Profit, meanwhile, was up 35%. And while advertising remains Meta's main source of revenue, non-advertising revenue is growing sharply.
Specifically, Meta says non-ad revenue for its family of apps was $434 million, an increase of 48%. And the main driver of this growth was WhatsApp. As a reminder, WhatsApp is offered for free, but does not display advertisements either (unlike Facebook Messenger). But, to generate revenue through this application, Meta offers services that allow businesses to communicate with their customers, or potential customers.
A vision that comes true 10 years later?
As a reminder, Meta bought WhatsApp for $22 billion in 2014. In 2016, the application changed its business model, becoming completely free. And instead of displaying advertisements, the group instead began working on communication tools between companies and their customers. “This could mean contacting your bank to find out if a recent transaction was fraudulent, or contacting an airline about a delayed flight,” explained WhatsApp at the time. Today, this vision is coming to fruition.
Otherwise, the Meta group also displays “Click-to-WhatsApp” advertisements on its other platforms. In essence, these are classic advertisements that include a button to contact the advertiser on WhatsApp. And according to Meta, this type of advertising, of which a share of the revenue can be attributed to the messaging service, would also be growing strongly.
Otherwise, today, WhatsApp is also a centerpiece in Meta's strategy in the field of artificial intelligence. Indeed, it is via its messaging services, including WhatsApp, that the group deploys its ChatGPT competitor, Meta AI. Moreover, in the third quarter, Meta AI exceeded 500 million users.
- Meta app non-ad revenue grew 48% in Q3, driven primarily by WhatsApp
- WhatsApp is free and doesn't display ads, but it offers services that allow businesses to communicate with their customers
- Otherwise, WhatsApp has also become a centerpiece of Meta's artificial intelligence strategy
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