Latest news with #Newton-Rex
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Business Standard
16-06-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
With ads and paid subscriptions, is WhatsApp Meta's next big bet?
After the success of bringing businesses to WhatsApp, Meta — its parent — is now introducing ads and subscriptions to Status and Channels under the Updates tab of the messaging app, the company said on Monday. This move will further push its monetisation efforts on WhatsApp. The Updates tab is now used by 1.5 billion users every day. Users who follow certain Channels will be able to receive exclusive updates for a monthly fee. The Status tab will also begin featuring advertisements from businesses, enabling easier connection with users. This is the first time that businesses will be able to run advertisements directly on WhatsApp. Previously, there were only two ways to target users via WhatsApp: first, through paid messaging used by large businesses to send updates, and second, via ads on Facebook and Instagram that click through to open a WhatsApp chat. In a select media briefing, the company stated that for users who only use WhatsApp to chat with friends and family, there will be no change. To show ads in Status and Channels, the platform will share minimal information such as the user's country or city, language, and the Channels they follow. Alice Newton-Rex, Vice-President, Product at WhatsApp, said the platform will never share or sell users' phone numbers to advertisers. Personal messages, calls and group conversations will continue to be encrypted. 'We are increasingly seeing and hearing people wanting to use WhatsApp for more than just messaging close friends and family. That's part of the reason we introduced the 'Updates' tab as a place for optional experiences on WhatsApp like Channels and Status. Almost 1.5 billion people globally use Updates daily. It's often where people go when they are looking to discover something new,' said Newton-Rex. The new features will roll out gradually over the next few months. The timing of this launch is significant, as WhatsApp has seen its two existing advertisement models scale well — both paid messaging and click-to-WhatsApp ads are now billion-dollar businesses. This is especially relevant for a market like India, where WhatsApp has over 500 million users, and revenue from WhatsApp Business doubled in 2024. Sandhya Devanathan, Head of Meta India and South East Asia, previously told Business Standard that business momentum for WhatsApp in India is 'outpacing' several other countries. An important aspect of the rollout is the focus on preserving individual privacy. At a time when regulators worldwide are scrutinising big tech's use of personal data, WhatsApp maintains that it will share only minimal information with advertisers and that messages will remain encrypted. In response to a question about rising scams and frauds, and how ads on Updates would be safeguarded, Newton-Rex said all ads in Status would need to comply with Meta's advertising standards. 'We review every advertisement against our policies, and in addition, users can report or block businesses on WhatsApp or report individual ads,' she said.
Indian Express
16-06-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
WhatsApp announces its first advertising play, but won't show it to everyone
It is finally happening. WhatsApp is finally opening up for advertising, though limited to the Status tab. The move is significant because the messaging platform with over 1.5 billion daily users has since the time of its launch, and even after its acquisition by Facebook, maintained that advertising is something it was not very keen on. In a set of new features announced today, WhatsApp has started rolling out ads in Status, allowing users to find new businesses while browsing through the tab. Alice Newton-Rex, VP product at WhatsApp, said they are also starting channel subscriptions to 'allow users to support their favourite channel by subscribing to receive exclusive updates for a monthly fee' and promoted channels with boosted visibility in the directory. WhatsApp has over the years had a strong stance against advertising, with founder CEO Jan Koum highlighting how the company did not want to become 'just another ad clearinghouse'. In fact, he was famously quoted as saying that 'when advertising is involved, you, the user, are the product'. In 2014, when Facebook picked up WhatsApp for $19 billion, both Mark Zuckerberg and Koum stuck to their no-ads vision for the messaging platform, with the Facebook CEO even saying he did not think 'ads are the right way to monetise messaging'. The new feature actually stays true to this commitment as users who don't use Status update will not see any ads. In fact, in 2017, Koum's co-founder Brian Acton had told The Indian Express (WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton: 'Social is not in our vocabulary') that the platform had started 'creating the foundations of how businesses will engage with consumers', calling it 'clean, straightforward, simple and spam-free communication'. This need for private, personal conversations is and will always be the heart of WhatsApp, Newton-Rex said in a select media briefing. 'Privacy is at the core of everything we do, and it's what continues to drive us as we innovate and look to the future. But we know that if we get the core of private messaging right, then this gives us the opportunity to build more that users want.' She said this was one of the reasons why WhatsApp introduced the Updates tab, 'as a place for optional experiences,' different from chats inbox. She said they are already seeing 'a lot of admins and businesses use channels and status in creative ways' and this is why WhatsApp wanted to 'give them more tools to help them grow'. Newton-Rex said WhatsApp 'has been talking about plans to build a business that does not interrupt your personal chats for years, and we believe that the Updates tab is the right place for these new features to work'. With ads in status, she said, people will be able to find a new business and easily start a Whatsapp chat with them about a product or service. 'And for the businesses who rely on WhatsApp, this will help them attract new customers.' In response to a query, Newton-Rex told that users 'will be able to take out the ads in the ads manager, just like you do for Facebook or Instagram ads. Now WhatsApp will also be an option'. The ads will come in the middle of status updates, and users who have a lot of these to catch up will potentially see more ads compared to a user who has fewer status updates from contacts. The ads will also be guided by the same principles as other Meta campaigns and will be reviewed before being made live. Clarifying that this was a feature businesses have been asking for, the WhatsApp product head said: 'There are hundreds of millions of businesses on WhatsApp talking to their customers, and we think that the reason that business has already been so successful is that people just find this a better way to interact with them. So it felt like the next logical step to help them also discover businesses directly within WhatsApp.' Asked if these WhatsApp ads would be targeted differently, given that the platform was more community driven and not open like rest of the web, Newton-Rex underlined that WhatsApp has a 'limited set of information' and the kinds of signals that will be used are country or city, what channels you follow, what languages you use, and what ads you have interacted with. This, she said, could lead to a lot of local ads too. With promoted channels, admins will get the ability to promote certain channels in the channels directory to help attract new followers and increase distribution for their content. Channel subscriptions, meanwhile, will give them a new way to share exclusive in the moment updates with their most engaged followers, while earning money right on WhatsApp. Meanwhile, subscription channels will be available only to select channel partners in the beginning and broadened to more later with the ability to charge a fixed fee through the app stores. Initially, WhatsApp will not charge a fee for this feature. Nandagopal Rajan writes on technology, gadgets and everything related. He has worked with the India Today Group and Hindustan Times. He is an alumnus of Calicut University and Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal. ... Read More
New York Times
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Their Album is Wordless. Will Their Protest Against A.I. Resound?
Sometimes, silence speaks louder than song. That's the hope, at least, for more than 1,000 musicians who released a lyric-less album on Tuesday to protest the British government's proposal to expand the ways that developers can use copyright-protected works to train artificial intelligence models. The album, which was created by artists including Annie Lennox, Billy Ocean, Hans Zimmer and Kate Bush, is not exactly silent: It features recordings of empty studios, which the artists say represent 'the impact we expect the government's proposals would have on musicians' livelihoods.' There are footsteps and rustles — is that a door closing? a page turning? a fly? — but only the most out-there contemporary composers would refer to the sounds as songs. 'Doesn't that silence say it all?' Kate Bush, who contributed to the album, said in a statement, adding, 'If these changes go ahead, the life's work of all the country's musicians will be handed over to A.I. companies for free.' Under the government's proposals, artists would have to opt out, or 'reserve their rights,' to keep their works from being used to train A.I. The window for public comments on the proposal, which is part of a broader government consultation on copyright and artificial intelligence, was set to close Tuesday night. 'Opt-out shifts the burden of controlling your works onto the rights holder,' said Ed Newton-Rex, who organized the album and is the chief executive of Fairly Trained, a nonprofit that certifies generative A.I. companies for the training data they use. 'Basically,' he said, of the current government proposal, 'it flips copyright on its head.' Even as some artists experiment with artificial intelligence, many fear that developers are inappropriately using their work without compensating them. (Publishers and journalists are also concerned: The New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement of news content related to A.I. systems. OpenAI and Microsoft have denied those claims.) The album — titled 'Is This What We Want?' — has 12 songs, each of which has a one-word title that together spell out the sentence: 'The British government must not legalize music theft to benefit A.I. companies.' Only some of the artists who were part of the album project directly contributed to the audio, Mr. Newton-Rex said, although he said that all shared in the credits. Mr. Newton-Rex and other critics fear that artists may not even know if their work is being used to train the A.I. models. He said that he had previously run opt-out schemes at generative A.I. companies, which he called an 'illusion,' in part because copyrighted work can spread so quickly online that creators can lose control of it. Powerful A.I. developers have repeatedly shown that they are willing to skirt copyright law to train systems. And Britain, desperate to revive its sluggish economy, is aggressively trying to court A.I. developers. Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently said he plans to push Britain to be 'the world leader.' The country has already signaled its willingness to break with the European Union and some of its other allies, like Australia and Canada, in its attitude to the technology. At a recent A.I. summit in Paris, Britain sided with the United States in declining to sign a communiqué calling for A.I. to be 'inclusive and sustainable.' Now, Britain is arguing that a 'competitive copyright regime' is part of what is needed to 'build cutting-edge, secure and sustainable A.I. infrastructure.' The proposals, which were announced late last year, call the current system unclear and say that it is hampering innovation for both A.I. developers and artists. Britain argues that the proposed changes are meant to give artists more control over the way their work is used and more opportunities for payment. In response to a request for comment, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said that Britain's current copyright structure is holding both artists and A.I. companies back from full innovation. But it also noted that no decisions had been finalized and that it would consider the responses it received before setting out next steps. Britain's consultation process, in which the government asks for public input at the early stages of policy proposals, is designed to take in feedback and often leads to revisions. As the consultation period ended on Tuesday, British artists and publishers released a series of protests. Several newspapers featured identical campaign images across their front pages that read: 'Make it fair: The government wants to change the U.K.'s laws to favor big tech platforms so they can use British creative content.' The musicians Paul McCartney, Elton John and Dua Lipa, the novelist Kazuo Ishiguro and the actor Stephen Fry were among the artists who signed a letter in protest that was published in The Times of London. 'There is no moral or economic argument for stealing our copyright,' the artists wrote. 'Taking it away will devastate the industry and steal the future of the next generation.'
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
1,000 artists release 'silent' album to protest UK copyright sell-out to AI
The U.K. government is pushing forward with plans to attract more AI companies to the region through changes to copyright law that would allow developers to train AI models on artists' content on the internet -- without permission or payment -- unless creators proactively 'opt out.' Not everyone is marching to the same beat, though. On Monday, a group of 1,000 musicians released a 'silent album," protesting the planned changes. The album — titled 'Is This What We Want?' — features tracks from Kate Bush, Imogen Heap, and contemporary classical composers Max Richter and Thomas Hewitt Jones, among others. It also features co-writing credits from hundreds more, including big names like Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, Billy Ocean, The Clash, Mystery Jets, Yusuf / Cat Stevens, Riz Ahmed, Tori Amos, and Hans Zimmer. But this is not Band Aid part 2. And it's not a collection of music. Instead, the artists have put together recordings of empty studios and performance spaces — a symbolic representation of what they believe will be the impact of the planned copyright law changes. 'You can hear my cats moving around,' is how Hewitt Jones described his contribution to the album. 'I have two cats in my studio who bother me all day when I'm working.' To put an even more blunt point on it, the titles of the 12 tracks that make up the album spell out a message: 'The British government must not legalize music theft to benefit AI companies.' The album is just the latest move in the U.K. to bring attention to the issue of how copyright is being handled in AI training. Similar protests are underway in other markets, like the U.S., highlighting a global concern among artists. Ed Newton-Rex, who organized the project, has simultaneously been leading a bigger campaign against AI training without licensing. A petition he started has now been signed by more than 47,000 writers, visual artists, actors, and others in the creative industries, with nearly 10,000 of them signing up in just the last five weeks since the U.K. government announced its big AI strategy. Newton-Rex said he has also been 'running a nonprofit in AI for the last year where we've been certifying companies that basically don't scrape and train on great work without permission.' Newton-Rex arrived at advocating for artists after having batted for both sides. Classically trained as a composer, he later built an AI-based music composition platform called Jukedeck that let people bypass using copyrighted works by creating their own. Its catchy pitch, where he rapped and riffed on the virtues of using AI to write music, won the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield competition in 2015. Jukedeck was eventually acquired by TikTok, where he worked for some time on music services. After several years at other tech companies like Snap and Stability, Newton-Rex is back to considering how to build the future without burning the past. He's contemplating that idea from a pretty interesting vantage point: He now lives in the Bay Area with wife Alice Newton-Rex, VP of product at WhatsApp. The album release comes just ahead of the planned changes to copyright law in the U.K, which would force artists who do not want their work used for AI training purposes to proactively 'opt out." Newton-Rex thinks this effectively creates a lose-lose situation for artists since there is no opt-out method in place, or any clear way of being able to track what specific material has been fed into any AI system. 'We know that opt-out schemes are just not taken up,' he said. 'This is just going to give 90% [to] 95% of people's work to AI companies. That's without a doubt.' The solution, say the artists, is to produce work in other markets where there might be better protections for it. Hewitt Jones — who threw a working keyboard into a harbor in Kent at an in-person protest not long ago (he fished it out, broken, afterwards) — said he's considering markets like Switzerland for distributing his music in the future. But the rock and hard place of a harbor in Kent are nothing compared to the Wild West of the internet. 'We've been told for decades to share our work online because it's good for exposure. But now AI companies and, incredibly, governments are turning around and saying, 'Well, you put that online for free …' Newton-Rex said. 'So now artists are just stopping making and sharing their work. A number of artists have contacted me to say this is what they're doing.' The album will be posted widely on music platforms sometime Tuesday, the organizers said, and any donations or proceeds from playing it will go to the charity Help Musicians.
