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Apple is an ad company now though
by ioasuncvinvaer 8mo ago
Apple is an ad company now though
- baxtr 8mo agoApple sells some ads yes. But it’s a tiny fraction of their revenue. Would Google or Meta go bankrupt if they stopped selling ads? Yes. Apple wouldn’t.
- bigyabai 8mo agoApple would go bankrupt without US protectionist policy propping up their service revenue. That's pretty bad. Maybe not "reliant on ad monopoly" bad, but pretty close.
- porcoda 8mo agoIn their revenue report this week out of $140B, services made up 30B. 140B-30B = 110B. Thats pretty far from bankruptcy.
- baxtr 8mo agoAnd that was just one quarter…
- bigyabai 8mo agoRun 12 quarters, for all I care. Service revenue accounts for more than 50% of Apple's YoY revenue growth: https://www.statista.com/chart/14629/apple-services-revenue/ https://www.statista.com/chart/14629/apple-services-revenue/ Hardware sales aren't picking up the slack, and advertisement revenue is also following a growth trend. Apple's stock would indeed be cooked if they went balls-out against the government that guarantees them access to cheap hardware and software that has been declared illegally anti competitive by foreign sovereigns. Apple needs this.
- manuelabeledo 8mo agoElaborate? Financial results say otherwise.
- nozzlegear 8mo agoThat seems like a stretch. Even in Europe where people can choose to use different app stores, few people actually do. So few, in fact, that one of the alternative app stores recently shut down. Have you considered that people just like Apple's products and services?
- avazhi 8mo agoWhat does whether they’d go bankrupt or not have to do with whether they’re an ad company? They sell third party ads: companies unaffiliated with Apple pay Apple to advertise on Apple platforms. They’re an ad company. Just because it’s currently a small slice of their total revenue doesn’t make it untrue.
- baxtr 8mo agoI mean if you don’t care about details that’s fine I guess. Let’s call any company that sells and/or buys any amount of ads an "ad company". Let’s put them all into one bucket and judge. That’s super valuable.
- anon7000 8mo agoWhat matters is that the parent comment said “Apple is an ad company now,” as if that negated all the privacy and security stuff they do. Making some cash on ads doesn’t have to rely on targeted tracking. That only matters if ads are an existential part of your business, and without huge ad revenue growth, your company is dead.
- manuelabeledo 8mo agoI guess it’s also a financial company, since they have a branded credit card?
- raw_anon_1111 8mo agoAs long as you don’t count the $25 billion that Apple gets from Google.
- mediumsmart 8mo agoI was wondering why Apple bought an identity clone patent that would wreck targeted ads and never used it. Maybe it’s a $25 billion insurance policy.
- JKCalhoun 8mo agoAre you suggesting that is what is keeping Apple afloat?
- raw_anon_1111 8mo agoNo. But guess how much their stock would drop if one quarter they lost 20% of their profit?
- JKCalhoun 8mo agoNo doubt.
- shepherdjerred 8mo agoApple's ad revenue was 1% of its total in 2024. It was estimated to be 2-3% in 2025. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/fy2024-q4/FY24_Q4_Consolidated_Financial_Statements.pdf https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/fy2024-q4/FY24_Q4_Consol... https://www.macrumors.com/2025/10/30/apple-4q-2025-earnings/ https://www.macrumors.com/2025/10/30/apple-4q-2025-earnings/
- lern_too_spel 8mo agoThe point is that Apple will make money any way that it can, including ads. That's why iOS privacy is worse than its competitors. You can't install an app without telling Apple because if you could, Apple wouldn't be able to monetize you as well. You can't get your location without also telling Apple because if you could, Apple wouldn't be able to build its location services as easily. No such problems on Android.
- raw_anon_1111 8mo agoTheir net profit was a little over $100 billion last fiscal year. They get $20 Billion+ in pure profit from Google being their default search engine. That’s 20% of their profit
- nozzlegear 8mo agoGoogle paying Apple to be the default search engine is not the same as Apple selling $20 billion worth of ads to track you.
- raw_anon_1111 8mo agoGoogle isn’t just paying Apple $20 billion, it’s based on click throughs on ads in Safari. Apple is very much getting paid based on the ad economy.
- nozzlegear 8mo agoBut it still isn't Apple doing the tracking or receiving the data about your Google searches. They aren't Apple's ads, they're Google's ads.