Jan Koum’s news about his departure from WhatsApp left everybody stunned with the shocking revelation. However, with his departure, there are many people who are speculating about the reasons why Jan had to leave the company. There are also general concerns for the future of WhatsApp. There is also the article by Washington Post on the founder’s departure which talked at length about the clash of thoughts between Jan Koum and Mark Zuckerberg. While the original founder of WhatsApp wanted to save and protect user privacy by keeping it on the highest pedestal, Facebook wanted a more open platform where businesses could utilise WhatsApp data. After this news, many analysts are saying that Jan’s departure from the company can trigger the release of ads on WhatsApp.
A Barclays analyst outlined the following about this new info “We normally wouldn’t publish a note on an executive departure, but we think Jan Koum’s departure as potentially significant implications. We’ve been told by many of our checks over the last few years that once Jan leaves, that’s when the ads show up,” Money Control reported that this new tip came from the screenshot of the note which was shared on Twitter by Amit Ranjan who is the co-founder of SlideShare.
The analyst went on to say about the WA report “There has been a tension between the WhatsApp founding team and Facebook around the future of messaging and pace of monetisation.”
If and when Facebook decides to monetise the WhatsApp platform, analysts believe that there could be a substantial rise in the number of ad impressions that Facebook is making right now. The analysts also presented a scenario where one ad per daily active user would mean a three percent rise in the total impressions created by Facebook. However, it is obvious that in reality, the number of ads could be higher.
While Koum resorted to Facebook to write a post about the whole incident, people expected a solid reason from the co-founder about leaving the company. That sadly did not happen, instead, Jan Koum wrote “I’m leaving at a time when people are using WhatsApp in more ways than I could have imagined. The team is stronger than ever, and it’ll continue to do amazing things.”
There was also a reply to the above-mentioned post from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, where he said “I will miss working so closely with you. I’m grateful for everything you’ve done to help connect the world, and for everything you’ve taught me, including about encryption and its ability to take power from centralised systems and put it back in people’s hands. Those values will always be at the heart of WhatsApp.”
It will be interesting to see how the future of WhatsApp folds under Facebook as it's now fully owned by the latter.
