Amazon’s $50B OpenAI Investment Tied to AGI Milestone and IPO Plans 
Apple to Begin Mac Mini Production in Texas Amid $600 Billion U.S. Investment Plan 
Trump Orders Federal Agencies to Halt Use of Anthropic AI Technology 
Anthropic Resists Pentagon Pressure Over Military AI Restrictions 
Coupang Reports Q4 Loss After Data Breach, Revenue Misses Estimates 
Hyundai Motor Plans Multibillion-Dollar Investment in Robotics, AI and Hydrogen in South Korea 
Nvidia Earnings Preview: AI Chip Demand, Data Center Growth and Blackwell Shipments in Focus 
Samsung and SK Hynix Shares Hit Record Highs as Nvidia Earnings Boost AI Chip Demand 
Meta Encryption Plan Sparks Child Safety Concerns Amid New Mexico Lawsuit 
DeepSeek AI Model Trained on Nvidia Blackwell Chip Sparks U.S. Export Control Concerns 
OpenAI Faces Scrutiny After Banning ChatGPT Account of Tumbler Ridge Shooting Suspect 
Snowflake Forecasts Strong Fiscal 2027 Revenue Growth as Enterprise AI Demand Surges 
Trump Pushes Tech Giants to Build Power Plants to Offset AI Data Center Energy Costs 
Nintendo Share Sale: MUFG and Bank of Kyoto to Sell Stakes in Strategic Unwinding 
Given the option to be tracked or not by mobile apps, it appears that many Apple device users have opted out of app tracking. It is then not surprising that some of the largest social networks have reportedly started seeing the effects of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) in their ad revenue.
Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and YouTube were named as some of the tech companies affected by the ATT, per Financial Times. The Verge reports that the investigation found that the ATT has cost these social networks $9.85 billion in ad revenue in the second half of 2021 following the implementation of Apple’s privacy-focused policy.
The ATT was announced in 2020 as one of the biggest changes coming to iOS 14 devices, but it did not go live until the iOS 14.5 update last April. Developers that track users across apps for purposes like personalized ads are required to ask users whether they want to opt-in or not of being tracked before proceeding with these activities.
Data provided by Latome shows that Facebook was the most affected of the four services “in absolute terms” after Apple’s ATT reportedly cost the social media giant around $8 billion in ad revenue. While Facebook and Snap’s ad revenues were both impacted by 13.2 percent, the report indicates that Snap “fared the worst.” That is not surprising since Snap’s ad revenue is much more reliant on mobile ads because its platform does not have desktop services, unlike the three other companies mentioned in the report.
Flurry, a mobile ad and analytics company, has been tracking the weekly opt-in rate after ATT was implemented in the iOS 14.5 update. While the majority of iOS 14 users have opted out, Flurry’s data shows the opt-in rate has continued to increase from ATT’s launch to early September. In the first couple of weeks of ATT, only 13 percent of iOS 14 allowed app tracking on their devices. However, as of Sept. 6, the number rose to 21 percent.
Meanwhile, analyst Eric Seufert told FT that companies like Facebook may have to “rebuild their machinery from scratch” to navigate through the effects of Apple’s privacy policies. Seufert added that tech companies might need at least a year to establish new infrastructure and test new tools before using them for a large number of their users.
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
