Friday, August 12, 2022

Apple Is Building a Demand-side Platform

Ronan Shields (Hacker News):

Apple may have blown up the digital ads business but it left enough fertile ground to build its own, more focused play for media dollars. The company is building a demand-side platform if recent job listings are to be believed.

[…]

It remains unclear if the intended DSP is geared toward serving ads solely on Apple’s owned and operated properties, such as the App Store itself or on the millions of iOS apps, or even on third-party properties such as the mobile web.

Apple would not confirm its plans to build a DSP or provide additional context as to how this would fit into the overall company’s strategy for its ad business. But the job posting is a clear signal of intent for the business that has left the impression (at least publicly) that building ad tech is the last thing it wanted to do.

Previously:

Update (2022-08-29): Tim Hardwick:

In the latest edition of his “Power On” newsletter, Gurman writes that Apple’s VP of advertising platforms Todd Teresi wants to triple current ad revenue, and the first move to achieve that could be to bring ads to the Maps app. Apple has internally tested adding sponsored spots in Maps search results, reports Gurman, and if it does roll them out to Maps users, it could just be the beginning of a wider expansion.

Gurman speculates that Apple could also bring ads to the digital storefronts of its Books and Podcasts apps[…]

Update (2022-09-09): Nick Heer:

Even so, I firmly believe an expansion of ads across its platforms concurrent with its efforts to rein in others’ tracking behaviour — and, by extension, impacting small business advertisers — will damage Apple’s credibility and users’ satisfaction. Nobody is going to not buy an iPhone because there are ads in Maps, for example, but plenty of people who use Maps are going to feel a little cheated.

The maxim “if you are not paying for the product, you are the product” is as inaccurate as it is a cliché. If Apple really is planning to put more ads in its products, it shows that you can pay thousands of dollars and still be the product — because the line on each chart must go up.

See also: Hacker News.

1 Comment RSS · Twitter

Is there already a petition urging Apple to build an ad-free ecosystem?
I hate ads.
I want to buy products which don't show me ads.

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