Apple Plans To Double Its Digital Advertising Business Workforce (ft.com) 23
Apple plans to nearly double the workforce in its fast-growing digital advertising business less than 18 months after it introduced sweeping privacy changes that hobbled its bigger rivals in the lucrative industry. Financial Times: The iPhone maker has about 250 people on its ad platforms team, according to LinkedIn. According to Apple's careers website, it is looking to fill another 216 such roles, almost quadruple the 56 it was hiring in late 2020. Apple disputed the figures but declined to elaborate. The digital ads industry has been on edge about Apple's advertising ambitions since it launched privacy rules last year that disrupted the $400bn digital ads market, making it difficult to tailor ads to Apple's 1bn-plus iPhone users.
Since the policy was introduced, Facebook parent Meta, Snap and Twitter have lost billions of dollars in revenue -- and far more in market valuation, although there have been additional contributing factors. "It was really almost like a global panic," said Jade Arenstein, global service lead at Incubeta, a South Africa-based marketing performance company, of the impact of Apple's changes. Meanwhile, Apple's once-fledgling ads business is now "incredibly fast-growing," according to a job ad. The business has gone from just a few hundred million dollars of revenue in the late 2010s to about $5bn this year, according to research group Evercore ISI, which expects Apple to have a $30bn ads business within four years.
Since the policy was introduced, Facebook parent Meta, Snap and Twitter have lost billions of dollars in revenue -- and far more in market valuation, although there have been additional contributing factors. "It was really almost like a global panic," said Jade Arenstein, global service lead at Incubeta, a South Africa-based marketing performance company, of the impact of Apple's changes. Meanwhile, Apple's once-fledgling ads business is now "incredibly fast-growing," according to a job ad. The business has gone from just a few hundred million dollars of revenue in the late 2010s to about $5bn this year, according to research group Evercore ISI, which expects Apple to have a $30bn ads business within four years.
and nothing of any real vlaue (Score:2)
Don't worry (Score:5, Insightful)
Meanwhile, Apple's once-fledgling ads business is now "incredibly fast-growing," according to a job ad.
Don't worry, the company with the incredibly fast-growing advertising business will protect you from ads... from anyone else
Dear Apple (Score:3, Interesting)
Let me say, I'm concerned that you're going down the same data monetization path that Google and Facebook have taken. This is a really bad idea. One of several key reasons your products attracted me (and everyone around me) is that you're (somewhat) responsible with privacy. In addition, you don't push many ads, and you don't sell my data to anyone with a checkbook, you'r hardware is top notch, and I like the idea of paying some extra up front and not being nickel-and-dimed to death over time. Like I said, your current business model is a something that I really, really like.
But the ecosystem has changed. Your competitors have caught up in many areas. There are now far more alternatives to your products that didn't really exist 10 years ago. So, if you go forward with this advertisement thing, please be careful, if you fully monetize my data, there's quite a bit less that distinguishes you from the competition nowadays. This isn't going to happen anytime soon, but I want to point out that I could, over time, extract myself from the Apple ecosystem. For example, I could move to:
1. A Samsung or Google phone
2. A Lenovo laptop
3. A PC desktop
4. Ok, there's no viable alternative to your iPad. You're uncontested in that market.
I'm happy inside your ecosystem, and it wouldn't take much to keep me. But this advertisement thing is concerning. You're a trillion dollar company and you get PLENTY of my money already. Do you really want to slaughter this golden goose for a few quarters of short-term profit?
Re:Dear Apple (Score:4, Informative)
Ok, there's no viable alternative to your iPad. You're uncontested in that market.
If it absolutely has to be no thicker than a phone, that's true. Otherwise you can get a full-fledged PC for less, like an EEE Slate. Granted, the screen is not as good, but most people won't notice.
Re: (Score:2)
But not the same as an iPad. I could move to a Samsung phone, a lenovo laptop, and a PC desktop, and I wouldn't shed a tear other than an occasional grumble. But you'll take my iPad pro when you pry it from my cold dead hands. I use that thing for at least 10 hours a week for actual work purposes, no exaggeration. For me, it's not a couch-surfer toy. Its part of my bread-and-butter.
Re: (Score:3)
The problem is that, like all publicly traded companies, Apple needs to show continual growth to maintain its stock price. And there are no new blockbuster products, certainly nothing like the iPhone, and those sales are plateauing as the market gets saturated and the world heads into recession. So Apple needed to come up with a new source of revenue, and they reached for the low-hanging fruit.
Re: (Score:2)
The problem is that, like all publicly traded companies, Apple needs to show continual growth to maintain its stock price. And there are no new blockbuster products
Because they're not even trying. Apple is sitting on unprecedented piles of literal cash on hand (and also has unprecedented amounts of liquidable assets) and apparently zero good ideas because they're not apparently developing any new products. Every so often someone makes noise about an Apple car, but that's been going on so long I no longer take it seriously.
Re: (Score:2)
I will disagree with point four.
I am all in on Apple. Have been since 1986. However, we got our kid a Fire tablet, because:
1). Of the wide available of curated kid-friendly content, available for only Pennie's per day.
2). Easy parental control of access to content and time-based access to the device.
Not really sure why Apple is ignoring this market...maybe there is no money in it...but in the meantime, it doesn't create any incentive to buy my kid an iPad.
I'm typing this on an iPad (:
Re: (Score:2)
Do you not remember iAds? Apple never cared about your privacy, it was all marketing spin.
As for an alternative to an iPad, try a Samsung Tab S series. Most apps really are fine on a tablet (the difference is Apple demands 2 apps, one for phone, one for a tablet, where on Android the app will change appearance depending on the screen size. So the same Chrome browser looks and behaves differently depend on the screen s
Re: Dear Apple (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Apple lost its way when Steve Jobs died (Score:3)
I think.
Re: (Score:2)
Apple lost its way in my book when they brought out the Macintosh, designed not to be upgradable or even maintainable by the public. But it's hard to say it didn't work out for them... eventually. And on the other hand, they would be gone now if Microsoft hadn't dumped a bunch of money into them back when they had a low of 1% of the desktop market, down from their peak of around 8%...
Apple has always been a marketing company (Score:4, Informative)
The digital ads industry has been on edge about Apple's advertising ambitions since it launched privacy rules last year that disrupted the $400bn digital ads market, making it difficult to tailor ads to Apple's 1bn-plus iPhone users.
The whole "we care about your privacy" thing has always just been marketing spin, using their claims to care about privacy to explain away other issues. The original "privacy" marketing started as a way to explain why Siri and iOS's built-in suggestions were so bad: they were bad because Apple didn't collect enough data, and Apple didn't collect enough data because they "respected user privacy."
Except they don't respect user privacy. They never have. Siri and "Siri Suggestions" are bad because Apple is bad at AI. Likewise, blocking the advertising ID was never about "protecting user privacy" and - as we can now clearly see - always about forcing Apple's way into the advertising business by kneecapping competitors. Facebook and Twitter can't effectively advertise to you on iOS, but Apple can. Want to target Apple's captive user-base? Go through Apple.
Apple collects as much user information on their users as Google or Microsoft or Facebook or any tech company. The whole "privacy" marketing push is rooted in Apple trying to explain why they're so bad at monetizing it. Always has been.
Re: (Score:3)
You charitably refer to the "user privacy" mantra Apple has trumpeted as marketing spin, but I'd say it's even more insidious than that. Tim Cook made it his own, very public, sanctimonious crusade to pretend he and Apple gave a damn about privacy while (publicly) lecturing Mark Zuckerberg about having a toxic business model that is about selling data rather than products. Surprise, surprise, now that Apple needs more revenue all that privacy pretense will quickly be flushed down the toilet.
The only thing w
Does This Mean? (Score:2)