Will Apple Maps soon feature ads? It seems likely. Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman reported in his weekly newsletter that the California-based company is “considering monetizing Maps in a new attempt to boost its services revenue.” If true, the move wouldn’t be too surprising. Since 2022, Apple has been considering a monetization solution that it could also apply to its services as well as to other applications pre-installed on its devices.
Sponsored search results
While the idea of displaying ads in its applications to monetize them is not new to Apple, the company is this time seriously considering integrating it into its Maps mapping application.
According to Gurman, Apple has "discussed the idea of charging for a prioritization service in search results". A system that is reminiscent of the one adopted by Google in Google Maps, but also on Waze and which is, a priori, very profitable.
Concretely, this means that the owners of certain places, such as restaurants or stores, will be able to pay Apple so that their establishment is displayed at the top of the search results in Apple Maps. They could also pay Apple to improve the visibility of their establishment directly on the map. That being said, Mark Gurman indicates that Apple's engineering teams have not yet started working on developing this solution.
Users, who should therefore have a few more months of respite, are however starting to show their anger. On some forums, such as Reddit, many of them are virulent at the possibility of this possibility, arguing in some cases that they buy Apple products for the premium experience they offer. It remains to be seen whether Apple will exempt paying iCloud subscribers from these ads.
Source: Bloomberg
0 Comments