Ad firms losing 'hundreds of millions' after Apple clamps down on Safari tracking
Online advertising businesses are reportedly losing out on "hundreds of millions of dollars" because of Apple's Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP), introduced to Safari last year.
Just one firm -- Criteo, which controls 15 percent of the browser-based market -- is expected to cut its 2018 revenues by a fifth versus projections before ITP was announced, The Guardian said on Tuesday. Since the company brought in $730 million in 2016 alone, the impact of ITP industry-wide could be severe.
"We expect a range of companies are facing similar negative impacts from Apple's Safari tracking changes," said the general manager of the Interactive Advertising Bureau's Tech Lab, Dennis Buchheim. "Moreover, we anticipate that Apple will retain ITP and evolve it over time as they see fit."
ITP took effect with iOS and macOS updates in September. Criteo and other companies briefly exploited a loophole, but Apple is said to have closed that on iPhones and iPads with December's iOS 11.2 update, forcing ad firms to come up with new strategies.
Intelligent Tracking Prevention curtails the use of cookies, which can potentially be used to build up detailed profiles of someone's Web activity -- for instance leading to jewellery ads for someone reading about weddings, even if they then go to completely unrelated webpages.
Several ad industry organizations protested ITP in September, calling it "unilateral and heavy-handed," and a threat to the "valuable digital advertising ecosystem that funds much of today's digital content and services."
Just one firm -- Criteo, which controls 15 percent of the browser-based market -- is expected to cut its 2018 revenues by a fifth versus projections before ITP was announced, The Guardian said on Tuesday. Since the company brought in $730 million in 2016 alone, the impact of ITP industry-wide could be severe.
"We expect a range of companies are facing similar negative impacts from Apple's Safari tracking changes," said the general manager of the Interactive Advertising Bureau's Tech Lab, Dennis Buchheim. "Moreover, we anticipate that Apple will retain ITP and evolve it over time as they see fit."
ITP took effect with iOS and macOS updates in September. Criteo and other companies briefly exploited a loophole, but Apple is said to have closed that on iPhones and iPads with December's iOS 11.2 update, forcing ad firms to come up with new strategies.
Intelligent Tracking Prevention curtails the use of cookies, which can potentially be used to build up detailed profiles of someone's Web activity -- for instance leading to jewellery ads for someone reading about weddings, even if they then go to completely unrelated webpages.
Several ad industry organizations protested ITP in September, calling it "unilateral and heavy-handed," and a threat to the "valuable digital advertising ecosystem that funds much of today's digital content and services."
Comments
These AD agency didn’t ask user’s permission to track them. Now Apple police the Ad and protect the user. And they complain about it, it is a little odd.
Granted ads aren't 'huge' but some sites are lousy with them. There was another Apple fansite I used to visit that Ad Blocker would block upwards of SIXTY ADS before the actual non-ad content loaded. That is outrageous.
Or could it be that the nerd herd, techie wannabes who make those pronouncements are the real outliers, the clueless wonders who just like to be negative by trashing anything Apple?
Funny, I don’t see Criteo complaining about Chrome or Firefox.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/01/google-confirms-ad-blocker-coming-to-chrome-in-2018.html
I would agree that much of the loss might be attributable to Safari tracking changes, but not the only reason.
Dear [fill in the blank],
You have noted that I have an ad blocker and have asked me to Whitelist your site. The answer is NO, I WILL NOT.
The reason is simple. The pervasive popup adds are an extreme nuisance and represent an invasion of my privacy by improperly using my browsing information.
I have no desire to put you out of business, nor do I object to "honest" advertising. You have plenty of space on your site to place legitimate ads. Please do so and quit pestering me with the false comment that you need the popup adds to survive.