Okay, it seems Meta (formerly Facebook) has been having tough times recently. Earlier, we reported on the fact that Meta has been losing some money, as well as market value (its stocks plummeted by 20%), and now, 9to5Mac reports the company is planning to restructure its ads infrastructure to target iOS users and “continue to grow”.
Meta appears to be looking into ways to show iOS users personalized ads despite ATT
As many of you may know, Apple introduced App Tracking Transparency last year, a feature that allowed iPhone and iPad users to opt-out of tracking for targeted ads. Many people have since then opted out, and it seems this change has finally impacted Facebook (and Meta), because it relied heavily on ads to earn profit. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company will be rebuilding its ads infrastructure during the Q4 2021 earnings report on Wednesday. The rebuilding process will reportedly be so that Facebook can continue to deliver “high-quality personalized ads” to iOS users, which is pretty much done so it can still benefit despites App Tracking Transparency and not lose as much money.
Zuckerberg has reportedly stated that with Apple’s App Tracking Transparency and with regulators around the world investigating Facebook for privacy concerns, the company is struggling with less data for personalized ads. Instead, it will be rebuilding its ad infrastructure so that it continues “to grow”.
Zuck: “With Apple’s iOS changes and new regulation in Europe, there’s a clear trend where less data is available to deliver personalized ads….So we’re rebuilding a lot of our ads infrastructure so we can continue to grow and deliver high quality personalized ads.”
— Patrick McGee (@PatrickMcGee_) February 2, 2022
Earlier this year, lawmakers in Europe voted to ban online advertising platforms from showing content based on personal intimate information such as health, religion, or sexual orientation. This law prohibits big tech companies such as Google and Meta from using sensitive information for advertising (via Politico).
But it’s not only Europe that has been unhappy with the way such companies use personal and sensitive information. US lawmakers have also introduced recently a similar bill that could prohibit tech platforms and data brokers from using sensitive pieces of information in order to push ads to people.
As you might imagine, these potential restrictions on targeted advertising could affect widely popular marketing practices and underpin tech giants’ business models.
Facebook has been unhappy with Apple’s App Tracking Transparency and now it is seeing its impact
Apple introduced App Tracking Transparency with iOS 14.5 which was released back in April of last year. The feature gave iPhone and iPad users more control over being tracked across platforms for the sake of getting personalized ads. Subsequently, a large number of iOS users opted out of app tracking for ads, and this has greatly affected Facebook ever since.
As we recently reported, Meta’s stock has been going down due to the report it shared on Wednesday. Of course, the company did not blame it all on Apple’s App Tracking Transparency but also indicated that other events have influenced the situation as well, such as the widespread issues with supply chain disruptions, inflation, and more.
And it seems that Facebook’s issues won’t be stopping here. As we reported earlier, the company’s forecast for 2022 doesn’t seem to get much better, and it stated that there are headwinds from increased competition from other apps and social media platforms for people’s time and attention. Additionally, there has been a shift in engagement without its own apps towards video platforms such as Instagram Reels, but they monetize at lower rates than Feed and Stories. Basically, it is struggling to find ways to grow its business during these changing times.
Unfortunately for Meta, it is looking at a possible cost of $10 billion just because of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency and users spending their time on Reels and finding other things to do than just sit for ages on Facebook.
