Roger Fingas
Facebook-owned Instagram is reportedly testing ads that exploit two of Apple's most recent technologies, 3D Touch and Apple Pay, as part of a broader effort to reap more cash from the photo-sharing service. [Updated with Instagram denial]
In the case of 3D Touch, people browsing an ad in their feed might be able to use it to switch among multiple product options, Digiday said, citing an anonymous ad agency executive. Apple Pay would allow people to buy products almost instantly.
Other ideas under consideration are said to be things like selling restaurant menu items directly from users' feeds, without the need to switch apps.
Facebook is believed to be concerned that it doesn't get enough credit for driving shoppers to make purchases. By letting people make direct purchases in Instagram, it could potentially draw in more advertisers.
Developers are largely only beginning to explore 3D Touch, which arrived with the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus in September. Although a number of apps have already been updated to support the technology, many of them only make use of homescreen shortcuts, or one or two in-app commands.
Update: An official Instagram statement sent to AppleInsider reads: "Mobile commerce is definitely a space we are looking at closely. However, this isn't something we are testing at this time."
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
Andrew Orr
5 Comments
At least Facebook is leveraging iOS and Apple Pay in an attempt to drive advertising revenue. It has all the makings of potentially becoming a great success. Google on the other hand will avoid ApplePay like the plague and attempt to do something similar on Android. Google will have more users and declare it a great success while Facebook makes far higher profits as iOS users have more disposable income. This should drive even greater adoption of ApplePay. Great move by Facebook and Apple benefits too. Win/win for both companies.
[quote name="herbivore" url="/t/189975/instagram-testing-next-gen-ads-leveraging-apples-3d-touch-apple-pay#post_2802618"]At least Facebook is leveraging iOS and Apple Pay in an attempt to drive advertising revenue. It has all the makings of potentially becoming a great success. Google on the other hand will avoid ApplePay like the plague and attempt to do something similar on Android. Google will have more users and declare it a great success while Facebook makes far higher profits as iOS users have more disposable income. This should drive even greater adoption of ApplePay. Great move by Facebook and Apple benefits too. Win/win for both companies.[/quote] Google has an advertising presence on iOS devices doesn't it? Generally Google leaves no stone unturned if there's an ad revenue opportunity. They don't stubbornly refuse to play cards on someone else's table. That's why Google apps are nearly always cross-platform. Why wouldn't they want ApplePay to be successful, and see a little for themselves there if possible?
Because Apple Pay success shows where they failed greatly with their solution. Google will not be supporting Apple Pay. There is a reason they make sure they duplicate any area that apple goes.
[quote name="genovelle" url="/t/189975/instagram-testing-next-gen-ads-leveraging-apples-3d-touch-apple-pay#post_2802634"]Because Apple Pay success shows where they failed greatly with their solution. Google will not be supporting Apple Pay. There is a reason they make sure they duplicate any area that apple goes. [/quote] To be fair Google was there first. I've also not seen any evidence that Google allows failure to get in the way, They simply try again if the problems with the first go-round can be corrected. If not they treat it like a learning experience to use on some other project and move on. Failing is a great way to learn and usually hurts only when you let ego get in the way.
[quote name="Gatorguy" url="/t/189975/instagram-testing-next-gen-ads-leveraging-apples-3d-touch-apple-pay-u#post_2802647"] To be fair Google was there first. I've also not seen any evidence that Google allows failure to get in the way, They simply try again if the problems with the first go-round can be corrected. If not they treat it like a learning experience to use on some other project and move on. Failing is a great way to learn and usually hurts only when you let ego get in the way.[/quote] Google is at a major disadvantage with Android competing against iOS. iOS is driving huge profits at Apple while the Android OEMs are drowning. When Samsung is having difficulty and they make nearly the entire widget in house, there is serious trouble in that market. Google is still profiting off of ads that are dependent on iOS even more than Android. Google's profitability would take a major blow if they lost the majority of advertising from the iOS platform. So they are forced to play nice with Apple. It means supporting Apple pay if necessary. There was a graphic previously released from an Android developer showing the android logo pissing on the Apple logo. That's truly how Google feels about Apple. Google doesn't play nicely. They never really have. They only play nicely if they are forced to. And the company would rather see Apple pay die. But it's far too popular, so they are forced to support it or risk being locked out. It's unlike Facebook which fully embraces Apple pay. I have an aversion to Google's business model of collecting my data which they sell to advertisers. It's not like Facebook is really any better. I do not use Facebook and do not use anything from Google. But Facebook is quite popular and embraces Apple where as Google is also popular but supports iOS because the alternative is worse. I actually don't trust Facebook. I trust Google even less. I paid for my mac.com email account. Even if Google released a paid version of gmail where they said they wouldn't collect any data, I would not pay for the service. Because they are not trustworthy. They would happily take my money and collect data on me anyway and sell it. That's how I see them. And everything about the company supports that observation. Google may have an advertising presence on other people's iOS devices, but not on mine. And with Apple making a separate shopping category for apps, Google's search revenue is going to take a hit. How much remains to be seen. I shop on my iPhone using apps primarily these days. I don't open a browser session and do a search much anymore when shopping. It doesn't matter to Google in my case as they aren't my default search anyway. But it's not the case with most. However, I suspect many others on iOS will also move to shopping with the use of apps. and bypass Google search resulting in the loss of search revenue. What will drive the shopping apps popularity? Apple pay and the convenience it offers. As for myself, if I find that Google search is embedded in any application, including the shopping ones, however, I delete them. But with applications now supporting Apple pay functionality now being built in, the model will further threaten Google's advertising revenue stream. Because people will shop primarily using apps and bypass the search engine all together. So why is Google going to support Apple pay? Because from what I see, the model that Apple and it's partners are moving to will further erode Google's advertising presence on iOS. And it won't be trivial either. The way I see it, Google will try to duplicate such an experience on Android to counter what Apple is doing. And they will be loathe to support Apple pay. Unfortunately for Google, Samsung has the best solution on the Android side. And Google is going to try to do another end run around their most capable OEM. Samsung might as well work with Microsoft and Intel, producing a Windows 10 phablet running Android better than any other OEM and with Samsung pay incorporated into the device. Such a device would erode Google's high end Android market share like crazy. But it is what is in store for Google if they continue to antagonize, alienate and emasculate their most capable hardware OEM.