
Apple Looks to Expand Advertising Business with New Network for Apps - maltalex
https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-looks-to-expand-advertising-business-with-new-network-for-apps-1527869990
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ggg9990
The fundamental problem here is that Apple’s revenues and culture come from
selling excellent pay-to-use hardware, and the App Store’s revenues come from
selling garbage pay-to-win games. So the advertising in iOS apps looks like
the trashy “Crazy Eddie” hucksterism that it is, rather than Apple’s vision of
tasteful ads for Porsche and Sonos. There’s a permanent disconnect that will
prevent Apple from ever being the premier seller of ads on iOS.

~~~
melling
Apple is trying to get more revenue from services, etc.

That can’t continue growing selling more iPhones, at least beyond single digit
growth.

As much as I like getting a new iPhone every year, I think most of the world
isn’t nearly as excited. That’s going to hurt revenues, and the stock at some
point.

~~~
simonh
The distinct ASP bump since the launch of the X says the new shiny is still
selling to the punters just fine. Maybe total sales are flattening off, but
there's no sign yet that Apple are having trouble generating interest in
premium hardware. That day may come too, but it's been predicted as a near
certainty any year now for almost a decade. Those betting against Apple
staying on top of their various markets have not fared well over the last 20
years.

~~~
zitterbewegung
Yea the new shiny is still selling but I think apple acknowledges that new
shiny phones sales will start to resemble the PC market they disrupted . And
Apple doesn’t want to be in that position and is actively trying to disrupt
the Smartphone (Apple Watch, AirPods and the HomePod ). Since Apple is a
second mover I’m probably going to guess we are going to get a stand-alone
mixed reality device soon. Also AirPods will get smarter and Apple watches
will connect to more things .

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GeekyBear
iAd failed, in part, because Apple refused to provide customer details to
advertisers.

>Advertisers Not Thrilled With Apple’s Practice Of Protecting Its Users’
Data... rather than offering a cookie-based ad-tracking and targeting
mechanism, it essentially requires partners to tell it what kind of audience
it needs to reach, and then trust that Apple will handle the rest.

>what it doesn’t do is hand over the keys to all that data and let advertisers
plug into it directly with their own data-mining and targeting software.
That’s not standard for the ad industry and that’s likely the reason a few
Madison Avenue feathers are ruffled over their approach.

[https://techcrunch.com/2014/02/18/advertisers-not-
thrilled-w...](https://techcrunch.com/2014/02/18/advertisers-not-thrilled-
with-apples-practice-of-protecting-its-users-data/)

However, given recent revelations, advertising models that respect user
privacy need to make a comeback.

~~~
asdfionio
>However, given recent revelations, advertising models that respect user
privacy need to make a comeback.

How will they? The companies that sell ad space have every incentive to
attract advertisers, which means selling data. The advertisers have every
incentive to collect data. Users can't easily _selectively_ avoid nosy ads,
even if they use an adblocker. Most users don't know how advertising works and
don't even realize there's a problem. All the people with power are on one
side.

~~~
GeekyBear
Facebook and Google want to maximize profit, sure.

However the companies that are placing ads through ad networks care about
their individual reputations.

Spending your ad dollars through a network that respects user privacy can be
considered an additional form of virtue signaling.

~~~
citrablue
How could a company signal this virtue to their customer?

~~~
GeekyBear
In the same manner that companies signaled that they were dropping ad spends
on Facebook and Youtube recently?

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goblin89
In short, Apple might start buying ad spots in some of its iOS apps to promote
other iOS apps.

On one hand, if there’s a chance that a small-time app maker’s product gets
promoted in bigger apps without the developer having to pay, that would help
App Store as the platform facilitating sustainable businesses—something it’s
currently not entirely successful at.

On the other hand, though they seem to be treading carefully, depending on how
it gets implemented it could damage end user’s experience. With ads on my
phone I feel a little bit as if I bought a drink at a coffeeshop and yet have
to listen to commercials while there.

~~~
gurkendoktor
Treading carefully? The current App Store search ads are mostly useful for
tricking newbies into downloading the wrong app, and all of Apple's music apps
keep nagging me to try Apple Music. If anything, I hope their new model will
be a little more subtle.

~~~
goblin89
I meant Apple treading carefully in this new project (as the article mentions,
they apparently reached to just a handful of major developers first and aren’t
rushing something out). I agree that currently the App Store ads are almost
never useful, although I appreciate that they aren’t creepy—for example, Apple
doesn’t seem to try to ultra-target you through contents of your messages,
like Google ads do with Gmail and Instagram does with Facebook posts.

What I envision could ideally happen is (1) Apple working out a way to place
ads unobtrusively, possibly with an option to turn them off, and (2) them
reinvesting a bit of their huge reserves into promotion for wider variety of
apps whose developers wouldn’t otherwise advertise.

This could reduce App Store’s popularity gap, improving discoverability of
original, lesser known but quality apps. By helping developers create an OK
business on the platform without necessarily making it into the category’s Top
10, in longer term Apple is investing into user experience: more stability
makes the platform more attractive to quality developers.

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mtgx
This is how a "good company" starts turning into a "terrible company" by
selling its soul to _keep increasing_ shareholder value indefinitely.

Eventually the company, even one like Apple that has more money than it could
ever need for the next 2 decades (unless it decides to build an orbital ring
for or some enormously expensive project for launching rockets orders of
magnitude cheaper into space), starts chasing new paths that make it lose its
ethic and its fanbase's trust.

~~~
yborg
This is the problem with the Valley "growth company" model, there is no
concept of how to just ... stop at a certain size and run a sustainable
business. The compensation primarily remains focused on getting cashed out by
Wall Street, a speculative venue that is fundamentally uninterested in
sustainable business models. At some point a company Apple's size can only
force revenue growth by becoming fully anti-competitive - buying out
competition to obtain unlimited pricing power, and then regulatory capture to
make it impossible to compete with them.

~~~
jackewiehose
> This is the problem with the Valley "growth company" model

It's not just Silicon Valley, it's the whole world. To quote the german
chancellor Merkel, everyone needs "Wachstum, Wachstum, Wachstum" (growth,
growth, growth). So far it worked somehow but I'm not sure that is the best
strategy.

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nimbix
And suddenly it becomes clear why they care so much about blocking advertising
cookies in the browser - in order to drive programmatic ad revenue towards the
apps where the device specific advertising ID is available.

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reacharavindh
Will have to hear the implementation details. But, this sounds like a
conflicted and hypocritical path, that runs counter to user privacy if Apple
starts tracking consumer behavior while helping the user stay from the prying
eyes of Google.

~~~
dirkgently
> helping the user

So much wrong in these three words.

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gigatexal
They’re chasing old industries and business models. Google has solved
monetizing search already. Innovate. Do something else. Instead of trying to
monetize every facet of your platform.

~~~
paulie_a
Showing low quality ads is not solving the problem. Google is the modern day
double click, crappy and overzealous ads everywhere. With extra tracking.

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Rjevski
This is a shame. Apple was the only big player not yet consumed by the cancer
that is advertising.

~~~
ddp
_was_

They also used to make stuff that was fun to use and had a great UI.

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mrsmee89
I think Apple is driven by "What will make the people we care about happy?".

If they are entering the advertising market that means that some very self-
aware people think this will make people they care about happy.

That's my worthless stupid opinion, that I consider to be fact :)

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DSingularity
Thank you for sharing, it is worth something.

~~~
mrsmee89
Thanks for the validation, I think so too :)

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soulchild37
iAd 2.0 ?

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IBM
I think this is more like Search Ads 2.0, except it won't just be in the App
Store but also in third party apps like Pinterest.

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garyvee_
Paywall removed: [https://outline.com/4mF5gu](https://outline.com/4mF5gu)

~~~
neonate
Also [http://archive.li/yLrCJ](http://archive.li/yLrCJ).

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jacksmith21006
Not surprised. Would rather they got back to creating great products to
generate growth like they use to.

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tzahola
Please, don't.

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orschiro
Is that in line with the current GDPR legislation?

