Report: Apple Asked for a Cut of Facebook’s Ad Sales Years Before Starting Privacy War

The Wall Street Journal claims that Apple argued that it deserved a cut of some of Facebook’s ad revenue and attempted to broker a deal with Facebook that didn’t work out. Since then, Apple has introduced its App Tracking Transparency feature which has negatively affected Facebook’s advertising revenue, setting off a privacy war between the Masters of the Universe.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple and Facebook (now known as Meta) remain locked in a bitter feud over user privacy and advertising, but this was not always the case. Between 2016 and 2018, the two internet giants had multiple meetings in which Apple claimed that it could help Facebook make more money from its presence on the App Store. In these meetings, Apple argued that it deserved a portion of Facebook’s ad revenue.

Apple claimed it was owed revenue from Facebook’s boosted posts ads, which let users pay to have their posts reach more people. Apple argued that boosted posts are in-app purchases which Apple takes a portion of, while Facebook argued that they were ads and Apple does not deserve a share. It seems that Facebook won that argument and Apple was not given any of the advertising revenue.

Apple and Facebook also reportedly discussed a Facebook subscription for users that would remove ads from the social network. This would have benefitted Apple as it would have been able to earn revenue from in-app subscriptions, but the two companies could not come to an agreement on the idea. Apple and Facebook did not respond to a request for comment from The Wall Street Journal.

Now, the two companies seem at odds with each other when it comes to advertising, with Apple promoting privacy as a key feature of its products while Facebook relies heavily on its advertising business. Apple’s introduction of the App Tracking Transparency feature in iOS 14.5 released in 2021 also had a major negative effect on Facebook, costing the company approximately $10 billion in revenue last ear.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan