Apple Is Reportedly Eyeing the Ad Business

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: The Wall Street Journal has published a new report detailing one thing we might expect to see on stage at WWDC next week: a digital ad platform expansion. According to the Journal, Apple has been in talks with major apps including Snapchat and Pinterest about the project: "Over the past year, Apple has met with Snap Inc., Pinterest Inc. and other companies about participating in an Apple network that would distribute ads across their collective apps, the people said. Apple would share revenue with the apps displaying the ads, with the split varying from app to app, they said."

The report adds that the new ad effort would expand on the "nearly $1 billion" business of search ads, which it introduced to the App Store in 2016. In addition to app ads being display in search results in the App Store, developers could include advertisements in search results within their own apps: "Under the concept discussed internally and raised with potential partners, users searching in Pinterest's app for 'drapes' might turn up an ad distributed by Apple for an interior-design app, or Snap users searching for 'NFL' might see an ad for a ticket-reseller app, one of the people said."

Perhaps they can call it iAd?

[Balial]

That'd be a catchy new name for Apple's first foray into the ad business!

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[rh2600]

Well played - for those that don't know... Apple has already eyed the ad businesses, and went in boots and all - pronouncing a pending revolution in ads - it didn't end well...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

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[gnasher719]

Well played - for those that don't know... Apple has already eyed the ad businesses, and went in boots and all - pronouncing a pending revolution in ads - it didn't end well...

But it did end well. No ads anymore.

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[Plumpaquatsch]

Well played - for those that don't know... Apple has already eyed the ad businesses, and went in boots and all - pronouncing a pending revolution in ads - it didn't end well...

... because they didn't release enough personal information to the advertisers - Try to find that claim about any other ad network [computerworld.com]..

All will be well...

[RyanFenton]

I'm sure nothing absolutely, horribly, massively evil will come from this at all. No siree!

Ryan Fenton

Ad Business = no privacy

[Anonymous Coward]

Google, Facebook, Microsoft.. all went to shit when they got into the search and ad business... well, I guess Google started there to begin with.. but meh

Greedy!

[Actually, I do RTFA]

They're already like the 3rd most valuable company. I can understand why they might want to follow the lead of the two beating them (Google/MS) into the world of ads. But they don't seem to recognize that their selling point, and the reason people pay a premium, is for privacy/lack of ads. Hell, Android apps are monetized by ads, Apple apps are monetized by charges.

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[PolygamousRanchKid]

They're already like the 3rd most valuable company.

IBM used to be the 1st most valuable company. Where are they today . . . ?

Apple is thinking about where they can go in the future . . . not where are today. Although, I would rather that Apple comes up with some new, cool, innovative products . . . instead of trying to beat and squeeze revenue with ads.

Ads are starting to get really annoying. I think the Next Big Thing in the tech industry will be "Ad Avoidance Defense Systems".

Think of Patriot Missile or Israel's Iron Dome that targets ads, and destr

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[AmiMoJo]

They know that all they have to do is the same thing as Google (no personal data sharing, just fully insulated targeting on behalf of advertisers) and envelope it in the reality distortion field. Useful idiots will do the rest.

Apple needs to be extremely careful

[hdyoung]

Apple should tread very, very carefully here. One of the main reasons that I still use Apple products - I feel that Apple treats it's customers better than the other tech giants. They monetize their customers less. They hold themselves to a higher standard of service and privacy. I'm sure someone will call me a paid shill, but think about how they compare to Google, Facebook and the others. The other tech giants monetize every keystroke and mouseclick. The other tech giants make their customer info available to any ad company with a checkbook or anyone with the motivation to scrape the web. I can't really blame them. They provide services and they have to make revenue somewhere. They aren't really sneaky about what they do with their customer info. Everyone knows it and accepts it to get the freebies.

I'll go with Apple for hardware and services, and skip Facebook entirely. Unfortunately, there's no good way to get around Google and Amazon. Apple is practically the last bastion of any real level of privacy when it comes to the tech giants. Even if that level isn't all that great, at least it's something. I think that there's a grain of truth to the idea that Apple charges a premium for its hardware so it doesn't have to make money in other ways.

As far as I'm concerned, this has become the main distinction for Apple. Their product design used to be way ahead of the others, but that gap has narrowed quite a bit in the last few years. If Apple monetizes me for ad sales, it'll become just another tech company as far as I'm concerned. At that point, I'll just save the several hundred dollars and my next phone or tablet can be Android. They won't miss me, but my bank account will wind up slightly larger.

Re: Apple needs to be extremely careful

[Anonymous Coward]

Appleâ(TM)s only advantage is that they don't shove ads down usersâ(TM) throats. If they start with ads, I will probably go back to Windows. At least there I can play games while being assraped.

??? They've already done that.

[Ecuador]

But they've already done that. They had the iAd platform for quite a few years, it was discontinued two years ago, when I had to switch an app I used it on to Google's Admob (and find out the most likely reason they abandoned it - Admob made significantly more money).
Why go back to something they've been doing for years and themselves considered a failure? Well, to answer my question they are probably completely out of ideas, I mean they seem to have started sounding like Gilette and their multi-blade razo

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[scdeimos]

This isn't exactly Apple's first time considering entry into the advertising business. Apple also tried to buy AdMob in 2010 but they got outbid by Google.

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[tlhIngan]

This isn't exactly Apple's first time considering entry into the advertising business. Apple also tried to buy AdMob in 2010 but they got outbid by Google.

And Google only bought them because Apple had iAd.

As in, the DoJ only allowed Google to buy AdMob because Apple's iAd was seen as a viable competitor.

I wouldn't hesitate to think the only reason Apple kept iAd along for as long as it did was Google was paying Apple to keep it alive as part of the DoJ terms for acquisition. Because after the first year, iA

Data-Horders

[found404]

Apple has as much information, if not more (iTunes, Credit Cards, FaceID, etc), as other surveillance companies. iSheep want to believe that they haven't been lied to by the hermit-company caught in more lies than nearly anyone else. It was only a matter of time that Apple decided to cash in on the data just sitting on their servers.