Apple growing its own ad business as privacy changes limit rivals

As App Tracking Transparency is about to affect the marketing industry, Apple is reportedly working to expand its own advertising business with new App Store ads.

All advertisers will be required to conform to Apple's App Tracking Transparency rules from April 26, 2021. However, Apple is believed to be expanding its own ad business at the same time.

According to the Financial Times, the App Store is to add a second advertising slot in its Suggested Apps section. Citing two unnamed sources, the publication says that this new slot is to be launched by the end of April.

It's reportedly going to enable advertisers to promote their apps directly to App Store users, rather than only being surfaced when a relevant search is made.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has previously criticized Apple's App Tracking Transparency feature for being more about business interests than privacy.

"With the upcoming iOS 14 changes, many small businesses will no longer be able to reach their customers with targeted ads," he said in January 2021. "Now, Apple may say that they're doing this to help people, but the moves clearly track their competitive interests."

Apple declined to comment on the Financial Times report.

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20 Comments

crowley 10431 comments · 15 Years

About 3 years ago

Not a great look when you're being accused of anti-competitive behaviour all over the shop.

foregoneconclusion 2857 comments · 12 Years

Not sure what the point is supposed to be. Apple has to follow the same App Tracking Transparency rules as well, correct? So they're equally limited by that feature.

larryjw 1036 comments · 9 Years

foregoneconclusion said:

Not sure what the point is supposed to be. Apple has to follow the same App Tracking Transparency rules as well, correct? So they're equally limited by that feature.

Perhaps Apple will show the industry how to advertise without violating privacy.

CloudTalkin 916 comments · 5 Years

foregoneconclusion said:

Not sure what the point is supposed to be. Apple has to follow the same App Tracking Transparency rules as well, correct? So they're equally limited by that feature.

In this instance, no they don't. Apple gets to circumvent App Tracking because -this is pretty clever imo, shady as hell, but clever nonetheless- Apple's ads wouldn't be associated with apps. Apple's new ads would be tied to the App Store and broadcast directly in the Suggested Apps section.

This would allow two ads to be surfaced. One ad related to what ever you search for in the App Store (this is already standard) and the new rumored ad would surface in a separate slot. The second ad wouldn't be tied to a search, simply paid placement.

People keep conflating Apple's promotion of App Tracking Transparency (a privacy focused project) with an incorrect assumption that Apple has an aversion to ads. Nothing could be further from the truth. Apple likes ad revenue just as much as the other guys. They've just never really been able to capitalize on it as well as the other guys... 'til now if this rumor comes to fruition.

larryjw said:

foregoneconclusion said:

Not sure what the point is supposed to be. Apple has to follow the same App Tracking Transparency rules as well, correct? So they're equally limited by that feature.

Perhaps Apple will show the industry how to advertise without violating privacy.

The only part of "tracking" Apple doesn't do when it comes to advertising is cross-site tracking - that's what ATT is all about. But targeted advertising - tracking based on searches, purchases, apps, age, gender, location, etc.? They do that and have for the longest time. Targeted advertising is on by default on Apple devices. The user has to disable it, in more than one location too. Most of us, generally speaking, don't want ads period. From Apple or anyone else.

CloudTalkin said: In this instance, no they don't. Apple gets to circumvent App Tracking because -this is pretty clever imo, shady as hell, but clever nonetheless- Apple's ads wouldn't be associated with apps. Apple's new ads would be tied to the App Store and broadcast directly in the Suggested Apps section.

Apple specifically says that their ad platform doesn't do tracking. They say that they use 'contextual information' and 'segments' to serve adverts rather than personally identifiable data. Do you have info to provide that says otherwise?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205223