Apple Maps. Apple is once again considering adding advertising to Apple Maps, a move that could help bump up its growing Services revenue even more. Apple's advertising business already serves ads for the App Store, as well as switching to an internal team for ad sales on Apple News in November. However, it may grow the ad business more by turning its attention to Apple Maps. In Sunday's "Power On" newsletter, Bloomberg claims Apple is now thinking about ways to monetize its Maps app. In a recent Maps group all-hands meeting, Apple management confirmed that it was exploring the possibility of monetizing the app.
Exploration is not a direct confirmation that advertising will appear in the app in some way, but there are multiple ways that Apple could monetize the app. For example, it reportedly considered charging for prioritization of search results in the app. It's also plausible that it could sell the ability to make specific locations on the map more prominent to viewers. With Google successfully monetizing Google Maps in various ways, it's entirely plausible for Apple to do something similar for its own navigational product.
This is not the first time Apple has thought about monetizing Maps. In August 2022, a report said that engineering work was "already underway to launch search ads in the Apple Maps app.". At the time it was thought to be arriving in 2023, with search result-based ads and promoted listings among the ways Apple could earn revenue. The move would be one way to expand its already considerable advertising business. In August 2024, it was revealed Apple had a 51% share of voice in programmatic advertising, growing 6% year-on-year.
Apple has also been looking into serving ads on Apple TV+, with the hiring of an ad executive in 2023 thought to help Apple run ads during MLS and MLB games. As for the size of the business, it is thought to have contributed around $10 billion in advertising revenue to Apple's Services arm in 2024. Based in South Wales, Malcolm Owen has written about tech since 2012, and previously wrote for Electronista and MacNN. In his downtime, he pursues photography, has an interest in magic tricks, and is bothered by his c...
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