Messenger was expected to come up with non-advertising based business models. The most credible rumour was to sell to large companies the ability to communicate

Messenger was expected to come up with non-advertising based business models. The most credible rumour was to sell to large companies the ability to communicate with their customers and prospects over Messenger, a trusted and spam-free platform (email appears ineffective because of poorly targeted marketing). Having payments was a key step in that direction: you could not just change your flight over Messenger, but pay the extra to do so. Workplace (née Facebook at Work) is now considering payment options, too. That could actually bring quite a bit, especially if inter-company communications are worked out. The reason that ads remain on Facebook is that the senior team believes that they can make the ads genuinely improve the quality of the experience. I personally block a lot of ads on Facebook (about 80-90% of what I see) and actively look at my Ad preferences, and I get genuinely useful ads -- often new offers from competing business, which allow me to monitor them. I can imagine why many people don’t see it that way but I would love to know where are the limits of that model. I would more generally encourage people to treat targeting (on Facebook and elsewhere) as something that they need to be pro-active about, and trust at least some platforms to use that information to improve their experience. That way, we could learn more about how to connect brands and customers better.