Facebook pushed to put advertising in WhatsApp Status, their version of Stories. But in order to place those ads in front of the right people, WhatsApp would have to know more about the users of the chat app, which would mean chipping away at the encryption. The founders, Brian Acton and Jan Koum, stubbornly resisted the idea, which violated their motto—“No ads, no games, no gimmicks”—and which they thought would break users’ trust. Acton decided to leave Facebook: his decision cost him $850 million in stock options. (He was still a billionaire from the deal, many times over.)
