As many of you probably know, Facebook was a vehement critic over the announcement and release of Apple’s app tracking transparency feature, and one reason for that is, surprise. In 2021, Facebook lost some money because of those privacy features, and AppleInsider now reports that ATT could cause the social media giant to lose an estimated $12.8 billion.
Apple’s privacy features could cost Facebook $12.8 billion in 2022, analyst says
App tracking transparency was launched back in April 2021 with iOS 14, and is a very useful privacy-related feature for iPhones. What it does is prevent third-party tracking from happening (of course, if you choose not to track, which is what most iPhone users opted for anyway). That way, an app like Facebook can’t track your activity online so that it can serve you with relevant ads. And Facebook has seen its impact. Nearly 12 months after the launch of Apple’s ATT, a new analyst now predicts that the second year will cause major disruption for advertisers. Companies that rely on advertising, including Facebook, YouTube and others, are estimated to collectively lose about $16 billion because of the feature.
Late last year, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg reported that the company would potentially hit $10 billion in revenue for 2022. Well, it looks like that number may be a bit high, at least according to one analysis. Research firm Lotem.
According to the research, the impact of Apple’s app tracking transparency will continue this year, but it should be less. Along with the introduction of ATT, Apple also removed its older technology called IDFA (Identifiers for Advertisers), which allows third-party apps to track you on websites using an identifier and then show you such ads. From whom you are more likely to buy something. from.
Despite this, Apple doesn’t wish all advertisers died, so the company introduced a new framework to help advertisers, but this time, no personal tracking was used and data was collected. Thus, less relevant ads may be shown to users.
The report continues to say that the collective impact for companies will be about $16 billion, and the company that is going to suffer the most is Facebook with about 81% of those $16 billion. The other company expected to lose revenue is Snap, which could lose about $545 million, then Twitter about $323 million. YouTube is also on the list of affected companies, and there is an estimated revenue loss of about $2.2 billion.
Huge amount, we might add. Interestingly, these amounts actually reflect how much those companies and apps were actually relying on tracking you on the internet…
The report also indicates that both Snap and Twitter are adapting to the situation, including using the new measurement system provided by Apple, and both of these companies aren’t too bothered by it.
Facebook has also said that it will work to reduce its dependence on Apple. Earlier, the social media giant said it would look into other ways that advertisers can take advantage of.
But Apple’s app tracking transparency impact is set to subside by the second half of 2022, at least according to analysts, and while “other shocks” are expected to hit the advertising industry, the report doesn’t delve into details on that.
Facebook seems to have suffered the most from Apple’s ATT. you remember when Meta’s share price took a major hit after Zuckerberg’s report on the company’s revenue and ATT. For those of you curious, currently, Meta’s share price sits at $214.99 (at the time of writing), falling from about $323 in February 2022 (before the report came out).
