Facebook Inc on Wednesday warned that privacy changes coming from Apple Inc could hurt smaller developers such as gaming companies disproportionately but will likely leave its own apps mostly unscathed.
In a blog post, Facebook said it was also making changes that could hurt smaller developers that use a Facebook tool for serving apps in third-party apps. The changes come ahead of Apple's new rules, which require increased user notifications for ad tracking and will take effect when new iPhones arrive this fall.
Apple previously provided a tool called the identifier for advertisers, or IDFA, that allowed Facebook and others to engage in such tracking of users across apps. "What do advertisers say? They immediately assume it's Armageddon. They just know nobody really wants this." The changes Facebook announced Wednesday will fall hardest on ads that prompt users to install new mobile apps, a format that is heavily used in the video game industry.
"There's self-interest in Apple doing this because as the advertising revenue stream becomes more difficult, then apps have to charge users and Apple, as you know from the Epic Games case, takes 30per cent of that," Nardone said."Apple doesn't have a stake in ads but they have a stake in paid apps."