Apple works with controversial advertising company for News and Stocks app
Taboola is known for its link boxes. The company is now an advertising partner in two Apple apps, but apparently only in three markets.
Digital advertising stress.
(Image: Shyntartanya/Shutterstock.com)
The advertising provider Taboola does not have the best image: with so-called chumbox ads, which many users believe contain clickbait, it markets advertising space under many articles on the web and in apps. The ad tech company, which merged with its similarly operating competitor Outbrain a few years ago, now has a very special new customer: Apple. This is reported by the US business magazine Axios. According to the report, Taboola advertising will now appear directly in two of the iPhone manufacturer's apps in at least three countries.
Not yet launched in the EU
These are the News and Stocks applications on iOS, but apparently also on other systems such as iPadOS and macOS. However, News has only been active in the USA, the UK and Canada for years, and the deal also applies to these markets, according to Axios. Until recently, Apple had also played out news links via a widget in the EU, but this no longer appears to be populated. Taboola confirmed the contract with Apple to Axios, Apple initially did not comment. The ad tech company has been trying to build trust with Apple for several years, it is said. Taboola is best known for its outstanding sales team, which helped generate revenues of around 1.4 billion US dollars in 2023.
Apple appears to be particularly interested in Taboola's reach; the adtech group is present in many countries and is said to reach more than 9,000 publishing partners and 18,000 media agencies and advertisers. Most of the business relationships are direct and do not run via marketing platforms. According to Axios, Taboola will now become an "Authorized Advertising Reseller" and will take over the placement of native ads in the two apps. These may be placed in the respective main feed of the app as well as individual articles. The ads are rather difficult for users to filter, for example via a VPN with a filter. Safari content blockers, on the other hand, do not appear to be effective,
Criticism from the Apple scene
The announcement caused a lot of criticism in the Apple scene, as the well-known independent developer Michael Tsai summarized in his blog. Analyst and investor Om Malik wrote that he did not understand how Apple was making money with this method. It would have been enough to increase the prices for subscription services instead of advertising, he said. Investor and former journalist M.G. Siegler wrote that the typical Taboola ads were "terrible" and "clickbait". It was "shocking" that Apple was helping to distribute them on the web. However, it is also conceivable that Apple controls exactly which ads Taboola is allowed to deliver.
Blogger John Gruber, who has good contacts in Cupertino, commented that the ads in the News app are already bad. "If I had been told a few years ago that the ads would be sold by Taboola, I would have said: oh, that makes sense." The ads he sees already remind him of Chumbox ads. "It's even worse, they're terribly repetitive."
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