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Apple surpassed $3.5B in annual revenue from its ad network

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Re: Apple surpassed $3.5B in annual revenue from its ad network

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with that is that Apple's strategy is to draw in a user into completely relying on their ecosystem. I'm guilty of falling victim to this myself. So even while they only track across Apple's apps, the tracking of the phone, news, music, app store, watch, fitness, laptops, etc. will add up to a monopolistic advantage.

Except that ecosystem is entirely opt in. If you are okay with a walled garden that you can't control, that's on you. Apple tracking what you do in all of their various properties and apps that they've built to try and be your one stop digital life isn't perfect but it is IMO categorically better than going to a random website and having my data get scooped up into my google account or my facebook shadow profile. If…

The average user is not aware that the walled garden is still tracking them, especially with Apple's charm offensive about how it is more privacy-respecting (probably since their refusal to submit to FBI mandate to unlock the iPhone of the 2015 San Bernardino shooter). Click-through EULA is click-through EULA, no matter what company generates it. That Apple tracking is better than that of other, more egregious offenders, is damnation by faint praise.

Re: Apple surpassed $3.5B in annual revenue from its ad network

#213
post #11

They put everywhere “we do not track or share data with third-parties” maybe that’s the key difference with other ad networks? It’s not like they follow you around over the web which FB or Google does. I actually don’t even see those ads, as they are only in few apps and App Store.

The best and most effective ads are the ones you don't see or notice as ads. They are more subtle and woven into content. Adblockers can't block them, and people walk away thinking they consumed some useful information.

Re: Apple surpassed $3.5B in annual revenue from its ad network

#214
post #99

> But it crushed [snip] 1000s of small businesses in the process. There's a lot of comments here suggesting this is a narrative from FB/Snap, but it really isn't. I was previously able to target adverts directly to the tiny audience of potential users of my product, and the return on those adverts was nearly 10x. Overnight it entirely evaporated as a source of new customers and I don't know how I'd build a niche busi…

I suspect you are being disingenuous here, and you know the issue was not the nominal harm your niche business caused by advertising, but rather the perceived danger of the entire infrastructure created that made this possible for you. This is a classic issue of technological capability vs societal interest (i.e. we can do it, but should we?), and there are rarely easy solutions. Some of the trade offs may just mean…

votes suggest this came across snarky, wasn't intended. I was serious about the last part , if there is real value there almost has to be other, even better ways to reach people.

Re: Apple surpassed $3.5B in annual revenue from its ad network

#215
post #41
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. Facebook ads were evil. And now that wiener-dog ramp guy can't spend pennies to buy millions of impressions on cross-app-accessed data, he has to be smarter and work harder to get his ad dollars in the right place. This remains a Facebook privacy story.

Two seperate facts: 1. Apple did use their market power crush small companies. 2. Facebook does have an awful privacy history. So the question is, do you think improving Facebook's privacy must hurt small companies? Another example, Google is working very closely with UK's Competition and Markets Authority to make sure the plan of replacing third-party cookies won't punch other companies at their faces.

> 1. Apple did use their market power crush small companies.

What small companies? The ones buying/selling my data without my consent? Yeah, they can take a long walk off a short pier.

Also, TBH some FB and those "small companies" poor performance cannot be taken with a grain of salt - cheap cash is no longer there given the interest rate hikes and collapse of crypto - so maybe the performance has more in common with all those startups that lost runway this summer than Apple's rules.

Re: Apple surpassed $3.5B in annual revenue from its ad network

#216

Google pays Apple about $15B a year to be integrated into their products. Since Google is primarily advertising, why isn't that considered advertising revenue for Apple?

Has the actual number been disclosed? It seems whenever someone mentions this the number keeps getting higher and higher.

Re: Apple surpassed $3.5B in annual revenue from its ad network

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They can offer personalized ads based on your interactions with Apple, Except apple has repeatedly claimed that everything on your iPhone including 3p apps is owned by apple.

Not sure what you’re referring to, and I doubt they’ve said they consider 3rd party app data as fair game for their own advertising targeting without invoking targeting.

1. Apple has claimed (from the epic trial) that since they owned the App Store, apps were theirs to sell.

2. Apple has claimed that any use of the iOS APIs is “apple’s data” (eg the Apple Pay system for in-app purchases)

3. Apples privacy policy claims that as long as apple’s data isn’t combined with 3P data, they aren’t “tracking” you.

4. Apple also lets you opt-out of personalized ads not data collection.

Ergo, apple will collect data about you from wherever and use it to target ads.

[1] apples privacy policy

Apple’s advertising platform does not track you, meaning that it does not link user or device data collected from our apps with user or device data collected from third parties for targeted advertising or advertising measurement purposes

Re: Apple surpassed $3.5B in annual revenue from its ad network

#218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don’t mind sharing… - What was/is your business? - Which customers were you going after? - What other marketing / advertising approaches did you try? Edit: I’m guessing weather forecasting ( https://skysight.io/ ) is the business.

Specialist subscription weather forecasting. I don't really want to make myself into a case study here - just sharing my experience that the Apple-induced small-business-advertising-pinch is very real.

Thanks for the info. No worries; I appreciate the perspective you added.

Re: Apple surpassed $3.5B in annual revenue from its ad network

#219
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yes sorry, I've edited my comment to add some context, I would stand by it is what Stocks looks like, as the app is Stocks and it looks like that. I did scroll just past the top stories to take the screenshot. I didn't mean to mislead at all, I do agree I did make it look like that, not intentionally. Also maybe the add disappears for Apple News+ subscribers? I'm not subscribed to Apple News+ so I can't speak to t…

Cool, thanks! I use Stocks on a variety of platforms and never seem to scroll down far enough to see the ad, so I had to check to see why my experience was vastly different. I'm in the same boat as you without News+.

You don't have to scroll very far at all, there's an ad in between every block of news stories in Stocks, you only have to scroll once on any stock or the first news tab - https://i.imgur.com/ICX0w0I.png - this is just a tiny bit of scrolling on the APPL stock.

Re: Apple surpassed $3.5B in annual revenue from its ad network

#220
post #216

Google pays Apple about $15B a year to be integrated into their products. Since Google is primarily advertising, why isn't that considered advertising revenue for Apple?

Has the actual number been disclosed? It seems whenever someone mentions this the number keeps getting higher and higher.

It has been rising every year. Last year was $15B and this year it seems to be about $20B. https://dazeinfo.com/2022/01/05/google-pays-apple-for-not-la...
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