Apple today rolled out new ad placements in the App Store on the iPhone, allowing developers to advertise their apps in more places, including the main Today tab and in the "You Might Also Like" section at the bottom of individual app listings.
"Now my app's product page shows gambling ads, which I'm really not OK with," tweeted Arment. "Apple shouldn't be OK with it, either."
As noted by Arment, Apple provides advertisers with the choice to have their ad shown in app categories different than their own app's category, allowing ads for gambling ads to appear in listings for unrelated apps like the podcast app Overcast.
The presence of gambling ads in the App Store as a whole has prompted some criticism, with some accusing Apple of being greedy and moving away from policies that the company upheld under former CEO Steve Jobs. Apple earns revenue from both the ad placements and its 15% to 30% cut of in-app purchases in gambling apps.
Beyond upsetting some developers, Apple allowing apps to run ads in other apps' listings has already led to the company facing accusations of anticompetitive behavior. In a tweet last week, legal expert Florian Mueller argued the ads are "another means of increasing the effective app tax rate, forcing developers to buy ads on their own app pages in order to avoid that others steer customers away from there."
In August, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple wanted to nearly triple its current advertising revenue to at least $10 billion per year in the future. Gurman said keyword-based search result ads are coming to the Apple Maps app starting next year.
We've reached out to Apple for comment and asked if the company will consider tightening its rules surrounding the ads. We'll update this story if we hear back.
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/10/26/app-store-gambling-ads-complaints/ ....
It appears apple developers are not fans of gambling?
If apple based platforms ban gambling advertisements.
Could apple gain a reputation for having an anti gambling stance in the future. Which might lead to a backlash where casinos boycott apple based products?
I don't remember statistics or revenue numbers being published in response to facebook and other platforms banning cryptocurrency advertisements. Or if there was an actual backlash in those cases where social media platforms lost a significant chunk of revenue as a result of bans.
The gambling industry is different from cryptocurrency advertisements. Gambling is a trillion dollar industry worldwide. It might be large enough for ad bans and lost revenue to affect apples bottom line. Perhaps I'm exaggerating the influence of the gambling industry.
I think it's less about "Apple Devs hating on gambling ads" and more about "Apple being negligent in the way they handle ads on their platform." Ads can be content and beneficial if they are targeted to the right audiences. As you said, the current system allows ad managers to publish advertisements outside of their innate categories. This will never sit well with anyone no matter what the ads are. Picture this, you're looking for games to download on your new iPhone or maybe browsing the vast expanse of the Apple Store for digital stuff to purchase, then all of a sudden you're smacked with an ad about gambling, now imagine this being done to you on a regular basis, despite the fact that you as a person aren't into gambling. You'd be upset too.
Again, I don't think it's about Apple Devs hating on gambling, I'm pretty sure a handful of them if not a considerable percentage gambles or has at least gambled once, it's more about how Apple is handling their content.