Apple’s new privacy policies are costing tech companies like Facebook billions

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When Apple released iOS 14.5, one feature that was included was App Tracking Transparency. Essentially, this gave users more control over how apps used (and had access to) their data. Now, we’re starting to see the real cost associated with this change.

According to a new report from Financial Times and from data provided by Lotame, an advertising technology company, Snap, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube lost nearly $10 billion in advertising revenue combined due to Apple’s policy change in the third and fourth quarter of 2021.

Some were hit harder than others. Snap, for example, is built mobile-first, so revenue is based almost entirely on smartphone use. Facebook (Meta) was also hit extremely hard, but some of that is due to it just being so much larger than something like Snapchat.

YouTube and Twitter faired better but were still affected by these changes implemented by Apple. Some of that comes from how and where users use the platforms but also is partly due to how these companies target users to begin with.

It’s also possible some of these stats are conservative estimates. One adtech consultant, Eric Seufert, told FT that Facebook alone might have been hit with a loss of over $8 billion in revenue in the third and fourth quarters.

Meanwhile, as companies look to adapt and advertisers pump money into other avenues like TikTok, Apple is riding high. The company has seen its own advertising branch nearly triple its market share.

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