In its year-and-a-half of existence, one of the things that’s set Threads apart from Meta’s other apps is that the service has been entirely free of the advertising that fills up just about every corner of Facebook and Instagram.

And so it begins. Meta has officially started testing ads on its social media platform, Threads, according to a statement from Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram. The pilot program, launched with a select group of brands in the US and Japan, marks Threads’ first foray into advertising as the platform explores monetisation strategies.