Discussion

• @alex_gurevich Alex Gurevich on x

  1) I'm still surprised by the lack of public discourse around the impacts of @apple's iOS 14 changes - all in the name of privacy - that are leading to massive adverse effects to SMBs and innovative companies everywhere. They might bear as much blame for a recession as inflation.

• @alistairmbarr Alistair Barr on x

  Snap's market value = $17 billion now. The same as it was in a private funding round in 2016.

• @levie Aaron Levie on x

  Can everyone just please start clicking the ads on Snapchat.

• @levynews Ari Levy on x

  there are stock charts and then there's $SNAP https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @alex_gurevich Alex Gurevich on x

  4) This has massive adverse effects on the economy as a whole. SMB's are 44% of GDP and 64% rely on online targeting. A 50-60% revenue drop is massive for such a large swath of the economy. Could be leading to as much recessionary pressure as inflation and other macro factors.

• @alex_gurevich Alex Gurevich on x

  7) .@Meta is no saint of a company, but we need to acknowledge the positives the micro targeting model has had for the SMB and innovation economy over the past decade plus.

• @fullbeerbottle @fullbeerbottle on x

  Fuck off. Privacy is a human right. If your business can't survive without tracking my actions, good. https://twitter.com/...

• @naomibrockwell Naomi Brockwell on x

  An economy predicated on tracking people and sharing their data is one that Apple users have opted out of. “Users to blame for recession because they choose not to be tracked.” Ok. https://twitter.com/...

• @samfbiddle Sam Biddle on x

  threads like these are an encouraging sign that we are heading in the right direction re: privacy protections https://twitter.com/...

• @alex_gurevich Alex Gurevich on x

  2) Online brands, small merchants, local SMBs, and the like have been able to leverage FB's micro targeting to compete and acquire customers in a capital efficient way, while growing and staying independent. The alternative is giving up economics/control and listing on @amazon.

• @eric_seufert Eric Seufert on x

  Some people have engaged in discourse about ATT https://twitter.com/...

• @mike_wuerthele Mike Wuerthele on x

  tl;dr on this thread: Meta's monopoly is fine, Apple's is not, and fuck folks that didn't agree to be scraped for advertising. Bad, bad take. https://twitter.com/...

• @drbarnard David Barnard on x

  @eric_seufert Was going to retweet a quote tweet of that thread, but “as much blame for a recession as inflation” 😬

• @internetofshit @internetofshit on x

  “if we can't track you literally constantly we'll just kill the economy!!!” 🤡

• @alex_gurevich Alex Gurevich on x

  3) With the recent changes, CAC's have doubled across the board, leading to massive drops (sometimes as much as 60%) in revenue for SMBs. @Meta did some analysis here. https://www.facebook.com/...

• @jimcramer Jim Cramer on x

  So Spicy recession theory today... Incredible to me that SNAP can ruin everything when it is but a pimple in the vast scheme of things

• @thomasbcn @thomasbcn on x

  @drbarnard I agree Apple executed poorly. But who would have initiated otherwise? Not adtech vendors, not advertisers and certainly not Google . It's been a decade ad IDs are abused and everyone was happy to ride while regulators are still figuring out what the topic is even abou…

• @samfbiddle Sam Biddle on x

  judge the efficacy of a privacy protection mechanism by the number of tantrums it causes among the privacy violating classes

• @drbarnard David Barnard on x

  And there seems to be a broad misunderstanding that Apple destroyed these businesses for the sake of privacy. Nope. Whether malice or incompetence (or some combination), Apple completely botched what could've been a much smoother transition to privacy friendly ad measurement. htt…

• @divestech Dan Ives on x

  SNAP delivered another train wreck quarter that highlights a digital ad slowdown/Apple iOS privacy headwinds. That said, we view SNAP as a paper airplane in a windstorm and is not a phenomenal barometer for the pace of the digital ad slowdown for platforms like Facebook, Google

• @alex_gurevich Alex Gurevich on x

  5) But no one is talking about it because they are either afraid to take on @apple or they don't want to come off as “anti-privacy.”

• @tanayj Tanay Jaipuria on x

  Lots said about how FB copies TikTok/Snap, etc, but on the flip side, the current business/ads roadmap for these companies is 80% just FB's roadmap from 3 years ago. Case in point, FB has had over half of these recent Snap launches for multiple years often with the same name. htt…

• @samfbiddle Sam Biddle on x

  (that said ATT is not some sort of mobile privacy panacea and there are very legitimate and worthwhile criticisms to be made re: Apple self-preferencing its own ad business)

• @howardlindzon Howard Lindzon on x

  Snpachat should turn itself into a SUPERPAC to focus on getting TikTok banned in USA. $snap

• @rihardjarc Rihard Jarc on x

  Selling $GOOG -6%, $META -8% and $PINS -14% based on the fact that $SNAP 's management doesn't know how to guide and doesn't have any foresight in the industry is a stupid reason. $SNAP never was and never will be a bellwether for the ad industry.

• @alex_gurevich Alex Gurevich on x

  6) Amongst the various people I talk to in my network, there is a broad based expectation that @Apple will come out with a more robust advertising offering themselves, which in hindsight will make their actions look highly monopolistic all while waving the privacy flag.

• @alex_gurevich Alex Gurevich on x

  8) .@Apple may be as much to blame for the current economic spiral as the headline grabbing factors. They shouldn't just get a free pass here and more scrutiny should be applied by the tech industry, government, and other stake holders.

• @internetofshit @internetofshit on x

  well, well, well... if it isn't the consequences of my own invasive actions https://twitter.com/...

• @sarthakgh @sarthakgh on x

  Every quarter, Twitter, Pinterest, Snap show that they don't deserve to be perceived in the same league as Google and FB. There's just nothing even remotely close to the Google / FB in terms of users, revenue, ambition, ubiquity, brand et al

• @jason_kint Jason Kint on x

  Absurd thread. This is basically Facebook's narrative around Apple's kneecapping of its surveillance advertising business model. Protecting users data and enhancing privacy is not bad for the economy, small business or competition. Don't let anyone suggest it is. https://twitter.…

• @alex_gurevich Alex Gurevich on x

  “Overall, ATT can be expected to make ads substantially less relevant for consumers and to make them perform substantially less well for advertisers — except for ads delivered by Apple's own personalized ads system.” From a less biased source...@HarvardBiz https://hbr.org/...

• @drbarnard David Barnard on x

  @Thomasbcn Right, I'm glad Apple acted, they created the IDFA mess and needed to be the ones to clean it up. But it's just so frustrating how poorly they botched this transition by not listening to the industry and putting more serious efforts behind making SKAdNetwork better.

• @nikitabier Nikita Bier on x

  Apple has destroyed ad-based businesses more than the FTC or any other regulatory agency. It's arguably more powerful than the government at this point.

• @snipeyhead @snipeyhead on x

  This is a pretty fucking weird take. All Apple did was giver users a CHOICE, which they should have *always* had. Data mining has been abused consistently, and if your business depends on surreptitiously collecting user data, directly or otherwise, you're bad at business. https:/…

• @antoniogm @antoniogm on x

  Yup. I wouldn't be surprised if a small but non-negligible fraction of current inflation is due to higher advertising costs thanks to the Apple privacy crusade (and strategic move against Facebook). https://twitter.com/...

• @gartenberg Michael Gartenberg on x

  I fewl confident that whole Apple could be blamed for many things, inflation and recession are not among them. https://twitter.com/...

• @peterpham Peter Pham on x

  agreed, every small business that got started in the last decade started with $50/day in ad buys and grew it based on targeting. now only the big wallet incumbents will be able to advetise, cutting out all competition from small businesses. https://twitter.com/...

• @wholemarsblog @wholemarsblog on x

  Facebook's argument. “Some of the people buying your data were nice people!” https://twitter.com/...

• @thisisnoahevans Noah Evans on x

  If the economy relies on data harvesting and targeted advertisements, then the economy (and its businesses) need to change. It's simply changes in consumer trends. People don't want data collection. Apple gave the choice. Apple didn't cease anything. https://twitter.com/...

• @lessin Sam Lessin on x

  As Apple chokes of add revenue from developers (see snap); developers should collectively respond by dramatically raising prices on iOS and lowering them on Android and making a real push to pry people off iOS (and/or soak the rich people who stay) https://www.theinformation.com/…

• @teroterotero Tero Kuittinen on x

  Snap down -39%, about to crack ten bucks. Refusing to guide is a real scare in this market.

• @davepell Dave Pell on x

  Snap hooks kids with streaks. Looks like are in one of their own. https://twitter.com/...

• @carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x

  Seeing the bad earnings numbers from $SNAP and $TWTR due in part to Apple's ATT changes is the tip of the iceberg of the economic damage. The fact that online retailers big and small have to spend more on ads to reach fewer people during a recession is hurts the overall economy. …