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Facebook has once again proven that it values money over its users’ convenience with plans to place autoplay video ads on its Messenger platform. The static ads are bad enough since they take up space and leave less screen space for everything else. An autoplay video ad would be an even bigger distraction for what should be a private affair.
As Recode notes, Facebook started monetizing its Messenger app about a year and a half ago through static ads. This decision was met with complaints due to how the ads took away space for contacts and forced more scrolling on the part of users. Unfortunately, it seems these concerns fell on deaf ears as Facebook has continued on with the practice.
With this new announcement, the social network is about to take things to the next level. By offering autoplay video ads on Messenger, Facebook stands to gain more money. These kinds of ads are more expensive than static ones, after all.
It seems Mark Zuckerberg and his team are at least aware of how this development will irk many of Facebook's users. According to Messenger ad business boss Stefanos Loukakos, Facebook will monitor the behavior of users to see how the autoplay ads will affect their activities. He also notes that the ads will start rolling out next week.
“Top priority for us is user experience. So we don’t know yet [if these will work]. However, signs until now, when we tested basic ads, didn’t show any changes with how people used the platform or how many messages they send,” Loukakos said.
“Video might be a bit different, but we don’t believe so.”
On the matter of how this particular addition will be received, it’s likely that users won’t appreciate having to deal with yet more ads, Slate reports. Internet ads have historically been unpopular subjects. Google’s decision to mute websites with auto-playing videos is proof of that.
It just seems like Facebook doesn’t believe its users will stop using Messenger even if they are annoyed by the ads. It wouldn’t be wrong to think this either since its daily user numbers are still substantial.
