Sources: Apple plans to expand its ad business and add a second ad slot in the App Store search page even as it introduces privacy rules crippling ads by rivals
New privacy rules deal a huge blow to how the mobile advertising industry works — Apple will expand its advertising business …
Financial Times
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple’s planned second App Store search placement arrives alongside privacy changes that constrain rival mobile-ad systems. Related coverage says Apple would provide more ad-performance data to advertisers buying through Apple than to those using third parties, making the policy and inventory moves mutually reinforcing.
The plan became an early step in a longer expansion: Apple later grew its ad-platform staffing and said it would add more App Store search advertising opportunities in 2026. The same playbook has since extended toward Maps search placements.
First-order effects
Apple gains another App Store search ad unit to sell, while advertisers seeking app discovery receive more Apple-controlled inventory.
Third-party mobile-ad providers face a less favorable measurement environment as Apple’s privacy rules limit the data available to their campaigns.
Second-order effects
Advertisers are pushed to compare Apple’s first-party App Store performance data with the reduced visibility available through third-party buying, strengthening Apple’s position in app-install budgets.
Developers’ store listings become more commercially contested as additional paid placements occupy search results; later App Store units also prompted developer complaints about unwanted gambling ads in listings.
Third-order effects
If Apple continues pairing privacy controls with new owned ad surfaces, mobile advertising shifts toward platform operators that control both user data access and high-intent discovery channels.
The pattern points to a broader contest over whether app-distribution platforms can set the rules for rival ad measurement while expanding their own ad businesses.
The trend: Apple is building a first-party advertising network across its consumer surfaces as privacy restrictions weaken the comparative position of external mobile-ad intermediaries.
“Apple wants to be a big player in advertising” doesn't quite align with “Apple shut down its mobile advertising platform in 2016"and “Apple has added one new advertising slot to its App Store” A narrative in want of a story https://www.ft.com/...
Apple to boost ads business as iPhone changes hurt Facebook | Financial Times - Lol. Unlike FaceGoog, Cook's vision is to make iOS itself a big paywall for 3rd party sites. “We don't sell your data, but we do sell access to you.” https://www.ft.com/...
FFS. I already pay a premium for Apple stuff. Somebody senior in Apple needs to say enough is enough. 😡 Apple to boost ads business as iPhone changes hurt Facebook | Financial Times https://www.ft.com/...
Now it's clear : @Apple is destroying the competition on the online advertising market with the release iOS14.5 in order to generate more $$$ from his own advertising portfolio. #Devils https://www.ft.com/...
“Apple now plans to add a 2nd ad slot, in the ‘suggested’ apps section in its App Store search page and will allow advertisers to promote their apps across the whole network, rather than in response to specific searches.” @angelmaldonado @EmpathyCo_ https://www.ft.com/... https:/…
Serendipitous! Apple's first party ad expansion comes at the same time as its third party ad restrictions... “(Apple) already sells search ads... that allow developers to pay for the top result... Apple now plans to add a second advertising slot...” https://www.ft.com/...
I was present in the room when Apple told a competition authority that they had no intention to boost their advertising activities on their devices. Their anti-tracking measure on iOS 14 was only for the sake of privacy. https://www.ft.com/...
Not all about privacy after all huh. Can I see hands for who is surprised? > Apple to boost ads business as iPhone changes hurt Facebook ↘️ https://www.ft.com/...
Apple has long wanted to be a big player in mobile advertising. In 2010, it paid $275m to acquire Quattro Wireless after being beaten by Google in the bidding for $750m AdMob. It then launched iAd, a multi-year effort that failed. https://www.ft.com/... via @financialtimes
The PR message is to promote privacy. But both Microsoft's blocking 3rd party cookies and Google's FLOC are part of a larger project to centralize more power as central nodes in the adtech industry while harming the rivals business model. https://www.ft.com/...?