You might be cringing at the thought of seeing ads in Facebook Messenger, but Facebook doesn't appear to have those reservations. The social network has revealed that it's expanding its beta test of home screen Messenger ads worldwide in the weeks ahead. It'll be a slow rollout, but the targeted promos should be widely visible by the end of 2017. At least the company isn't shy about why it's pushing forward.

Messenger product lead Stan Chudnovsky tells VentureBeat that it's a simple matter of income: advertising is "how we're going to be making money right now." There are "other business models" under consideration, he says, but they all tie into ads. In short: don't expect Facebook to have second thoughts as long as it's making billions of dollars in profit from ads.

Facebook does care about the kinds of ads you see. While it's fine with ads kicking you to a website, it would prefer that ads lead to chats with businesses. You're more likely to respond to an ad if it takes you to another conversation inside the chat app, Chudnovsky says. The question is whether or not people will simply roll with the changes or balk at them. It's entirely likely that people will just shrug and move on, but there is a chance this could steer some users toward ad-free alternatives.


https://www.engadget.com/2017/07/11/facebook-tests-messenger-ads-worldwide/