If you have an iPhone, prepare to see more ads on the App Store. The advertising business is so juicy that Apple is not willing to let it go. And it doesn’t seem to matter that the smartphone and the app store are incredibly profitable and two of the biggest players in the company’s revenue.
Starting Tuesday, Apple is giving advertisers the ability to place ads on the main “Today” tab of the App Store and in the section “You may also like it” at the bottom of app store pages. The novelty reaches all the countries in which the service works, except China.
Making the user experience worse?
Ads within the App Store are not new. However, these were limited to the Store’s Search tab and Suggestions section. Until now, in the Today tab we found “genuine” recommendations of applications, which were accompanied by opinions, tips and tricks.
With this latest change, the Today tab, which was reserved for the careful work of the editorial team, will give a space to those pay to be there. In Apple’s words: “With an ad in the Today tab, your app can be featured prominently on the front page of the App Store.”
He continues: “The prominence of this location makes it a good option for increasing awareness of your app, especially for new content releases, special events, and seasonal promotions.”
You may also like it, as we mentioned above, it had also been ad-free. Since the section is located within the app download page, the App Store suggests similar apps. Now, however, it will also be ad-supported and include advertisers’ apps.
“Ads are shown at the top of the “You Might Also Like” list to people who have scrolled to the bottom of relevant product pages, actively searching for apps, and getting information to help them decide whether to they download them,” explains Apple.
Apple now embraces advertising (in its own way)
According to MacRumorslegal expert Florian Mueller points out that this move may force developers to buy ads on their own app pages to prevent other clients (your competitors) from having a presence there.
Tim Cook, for his part, said in 2018: “We could make a ton of money if we monetized our customers. If our customers were our product. We have chosen not to do that.” As we can see, things are changing, and advertising on Apple products could increase over time.
If we take into account the analysis of Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, the Cupertino company has set an ambitious goal for its advertising business, which currently bills about 4,000 million dollars a year: to triple its income to reach at least 10,000 million dollars. annual dollars.
Reaching that goal will not be an easy task. To do this, Apple could expand the reach of its ad platform to other applications in its ecosystem, such as Maps, Books and Podcasts. At least in the case of Maps, the company would have already been exploring how to add this functionality.
If you’d like to opt out of Apple’s targeted advertising, you can do so from your iPhone’s settings. tap on Settings > Privacy > apple advertising and turn off the “Personalized Ads” switch. It should be noted that this setting will not cause you to receive fewer ads, just untargeted ads based on the information Apple has about you.
Images: Apple | luke chesser
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