Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in May that monetization of messaging application WhatsApp was not imminent, but things appear to have changed over the past couple of months.
Kurt Wagner of Recode discovered WhatsApp job listings for a product manager, monetization; product marketing manager, business; and public policy manager.
The listing for the product manager, monetization post, based at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., reads in part, “WhatsApp is seeking an exceptional individual to lead product development for our monetization efforts. If you are a leader who has demonstrated experience in building products, has an empathy for both consumers and businesses, has a strong bias for action and wants to understand and unlock the potential of WhatsApp to serve millions of businesses we would be excited to hear from you.”
Prior experience in payments is also mentioned as a preferred qualification.
The listing for the product marketing manager, business post, also in Menlo Park, details these responsibilities:
- Drive inbound product marketing: Be the voice of the market through industry research, competitive analysis, quantitative analysis and structured qualitative feedback from businesses through direct engagement.
- Drive go-to-market strategy and execution: Test and launch new products in market through alphas/betas, product positioning and messaging, launch strategy and scaled adoption.
- Lead a global cross-functional team to launch products in the market and drive product adoption.
And the Menlo Park-based public policy manager position top responsibility is, “Develop, support and execute WhatsApp’s global policy strategy in support of business objectives.”
During Facebook’s first-quarter-2017 earnings call in May, Zuckerberg replied to a question about monetizing Messenger and WhatsApp by stressing the need to first get businesses using the messaging apps organically and establishing behaviors for interacting with users.
Facebook had not yet responded to a request for comment at the time of this post.
Image courtesy of HStocks/iStock.
