Apple’s unstable ‘billion-dollar’ ambition: Internal turmoil, outside criticism for going against the culture

According to Apple Insider, tech giant Apple is planning big to expand its advertising business. However, this has caused Apple to face opposition both internally and externally because the company has always built an image as a business that has always fought for user privacy. Meanwhile, advertising is an area that needs to exploit user data to be effective.

In terms of advertising, although Apple cannot compare with the giant Google, this is not their usual project. In fact, Apple makes about $4 billion a year from ads in the App Store and other products.

It is expected that the advertising business can bring Apple 6 billion USD by 2025. However, its ambition to develop this segment has encountered many objections.

This is not only related to the company’s image but also causes confusion from the inside. Engineers working on Apple’s advertising technology have expressed the opinion that they do not want ads to appear too much to serve the goal of increasing revenue of the company.

In addition, one obstacle lies in the fact that the ad product team is completely isolated from the other departments, so they cannot get the details to deliver the right ads.

At least seven people who work on the advertising team told The Information about the indifference of Apple employees to the scheme related to the advertising business. The two said some engineers held internal meetings, expressing concern that Apple may have gone too far and that that could potentially affect the user experience of an already expensive device like the iPhone. .

Meanwhile, some Apple salespeople are also uncomfortable being asked to bid on keywords that are less relevant to the app just to hit revenue goals.

Externally, after years of declaring to users that Apple cares about privacy and fighting against companies that rely on advertising for revenue, it has come under some criticism from critics, that the The advertising business is completely inappropriate for the company.

Peter Newman, forecasting director at market research firm Insider Intelligence, commented: ” They can’t alienate users by taking advantage of everything they’ve built about their brand like privacy, security, data protection and user identity protection ”.

Apple has been criticized for displaying gambling app ads next to children’s apps in the App Store.

Shac Ron – a former Apple engineer, expressed his agreement with the criticism of the old company’s ambition to promote the advertising business. He called the effort “shameful” and ” hopefully Apple realizes this is a no-brainer “.

However, a source in the advertising business said that Apple does not have the ambitions of its advertising business like Meta or Google and that it does not plan to build a large advertising network outside the ecosystem. mine.

Source: Apple Insider