Sources: before iOS privacy changes, Apple and Facebook discussed ways to share revenue, like an ad-free, paid version of Facebook and IAP for “boosted posts”
The two tech giants discussed revenue-sharing arrangements, including a potential ad-free, subscription version of Facebook Tweets: @patiencehaggin , @sal19 , @jason_kint , @nickstatt , @mgsiegler , @carnage4life , @nickstatt , and @eric_seufert See also Mediagazer Tweets: Patience / @patiencehaggin : SCOOP from @sal19: years before ATT, Apple suggested ways that it could take a cut of Facebook's ad revenue, including a paid version of Facebook https://www.wsj.com/... Sal Rodriguez / @sal19 : SCOOP: In the years before iOS 14.5, Apple and Facebook held several meetings discussing possible arrangements that would have earned the iPhone maker a slice of the social media company's revenue, including an ad-free, subscription version of Facebook https://www.wsj.com/... Jason Kint / @jason_kint : Apple-FB drama always a fun read. But facts can be simplified: - FB biz model is 98% surveillance advertising - Most users don't want to be tracked - Apple kneecapped Facebook spring 2021 - This chart is an insane illustration of how boosted privacy shifts welfare 👏🏽 👏🏽 👏🏽 https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Nick Statt / @nickstatt : @sal19 Apple has always cast its fight with Facebook in moral terms, with Apple execs looking down on the social network's biz model and privacy record. But this sounds very much like a “Nice social network you have there... would be unfortunate if something happened to it” approach. https://twitter.com/... M.G. Siegler / @mgsiegler : “You've got a nice social network here. It would be a shame if something happened to it...” https://twitter.com/... Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : Apple's primary “privacy problem” is that they get 30% of the revenue of the apps on the right and 0% of the apps on the left. Destroying the existing ads business model of free iOS apps then driving advertisers to use App Store & Apple News ads instead solves that problem nicely https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Nick Statt / @nickstatt : Wow. @sal19 with tons of wild details in this story about how Apple's relationship with Meta deteriorated as Apple tried to extract more revenue from Facebook. Apple floated an ad-free FB while also suggesting it could enforce its 30% cut on paid posts. https://www.wsj.com/... https://twitter.com/... Eric Seufert / @eric_seufert : Wow: Among other potential concessions, Apple proposed that “post boosts” be considered as IAPs so that a 30% cut could be collected on the revenue they generated. ATT was introduced after no such revenue sharing compromise with FB was reached. https://twitter.com/... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
The reported talks sit alongside Facebook’s later warning that ATT was creating advertising headwinds and advertisers’ subsequent shifts toward Google, Amazon, and TikTok. They also echo earlier coverage that tighter iOS tracking could steer developers toward subscriptions and in-app purchases, where Apple collects commissions: a prospective shift toward IAP and subscription revenue.
Apple’s later expansion of App Store ad placements adds context for why the reported discussions matter: the platform owner was broadening its own advertising business while exploring ways to participate in Facebook’s monetization. Apple's App Store ad expansion
First-order effects
- The report exposes that Apple and Facebook discussed routes for Apple to receive a share of Facebook revenue, including an ad-free subscription and IAP treatment for boosted posts; it does not establish that either arrangement was adopted.
- Facebook’s proposed boosted-posts path would have put a portion of that transaction flow under Apple’s IAP commission model rather than leaving it entirely within Facebook’s ad business.
Second-order effects
- For advertisers facing Meta price increases after ATT, a shift of boosted posts into IAP would add Apple’s platform economics to a channel already under pressure, reinforcing incentives to allocate budgets elsewhere. Advertisers' budget shifts after ATT
- The talks sharpen the conflict between Apple’s privacy rules and Meta’s ad model: restrictions that weaken targeting can also make subscriptions and in-app transactions more strategically important to platform owners.
Third-order effects
- If platforms pair privacy controls with paid distribution or transaction rails, app publishers’ monetization choices become more dependent on the operating-system owner’s take rate rather than advertising alone.
- The episode is a data point in the longer contest over whether mobile gatekeepers can both set the rules for data access and participate economically in the business models those rules reshape.
The trend: Mobile platforms are increasingly positioned to influence ad-funded apps through both privacy governance and the payment systems that support alternative revenue models.