Developers can pay the company to have their software appear at the top of the search results page when you enter certain terms. Gurman suggests that search ads on Maps would work the same way. For example, a Japanese restaurant could pay Apple to have its business appear higher in local listings when people use search terms like “sushi.” Gurman thinks Apple could implement similar ads in its Podcasts and Books apps. He says the company could start offering an ad-supported tier through Apple TV+. Gurman credits the potential boost to Todd Teresi, the vice president in charge of the company’s advertising division. Teresi recently began reporting directly to head of services Eddy Cue and has reportedly talked about greatly expanding his team’s impact. The division generates about $4 billion in annual revenue. Teresi’s ambition is to increase this number to double digits. This would require a significant expansion of Apple’s current advertising efforts. A broader advertising push would set the stage for a company that has, outwardly at least, positioned itself as a champion of user privacy. With the release of iOS 14.5, Apple introduced a feature called App Tracking Transparency. The prompt allows you to prevent apps from recording your activity on other apps and websites. In 2022, the policy is estimated to cost Facebook’s parent company Meta about $13 billion in lost revenue. When Apple announced ATT at WWDC 2020, the company publicly stated that it designed the feature to protect user privacy. A recent Wall Street Journal report, which said the company was pursuing a revenue-sharing deal with Facebook, suggests that its motives with ATT may not have been so altruistic.
