Meta is introducing paid advertising to WhatsApp, as the Big Tech group cashes in on the world’s most popular messaging service.

On Monday, WhatsApp, which counts 200mn businesses among its more than 3bn monthly active users, said it would roll out the feature globally over the next few months.

The ads will appear in the Status section of the messaging service, visible through the Updates tab on the left of the app screen, so keeping them separate from the main chat conversation area.

“This was a longtime request that we had from businesses, and they care about preserving people’s personal spaces,” said Nikila Srinivasan, vice-president of business messaging at WhatsApp.