Apple is becoming more like Alphabet with big ad sales shift
After nibbling around the edges, Apple is taking a deeper bite into advertising. In a significant shift, Apple is now selling its own ad inventory for Apple News, according to Axios.
Ads in Apple News aren’t new, but previously Apple was turning to third-party ad platforms to sell ads. The new advertising deal will give publishers a 70% cut of ad sales that it places, according to the report.
Compared to Alphabet’s and Meta’s massive advertising businesses, Apple stands apart from the companies with a relatively tiny slice of revenue derived from ads in the App Store (though still estimated to be about $10 billion this year). Having a business that was largely driven by hardware and services allowed Apple to distinguish itself on privacy, touting strong privacy default settings and Safari’s ad-blocking features. Apple even ran a series of funny ads showing how companies track you everywhere you go.
As Apple starts monetizing its users’ data for advertising, that could weaken their privacy-focused messaging just as the company is asking its users to trust new AI tools with sensitive information.
Apple is following a trend of companies with large customer bases who have turned to advertising as a new revenue source as their legacy businesses slow.
Compared to Alphabet’s and Meta’s massive advertising businesses, Apple stands apart from the companies with a relatively tiny slice of revenue derived from ads in the App Store (though still estimated to be about $10 billion this year). Having a business that was largely driven by hardware and services allowed Apple to distinguish itself on privacy, touting strong privacy default settings and Safari’s ad-blocking features. Apple even ran a series of funny ads showing how companies track you everywhere you go.
As Apple starts monetizing its users’ data for advertising, that could weaken their privacy-focused messaging just as the company is asking its users to trust new AI tools with sensitive information.
Apple is following a trend of companies with large customer bases who have turned to advertising as a new revenue source as their legacy businesses slow.
