Apple “news” and “stocks”: ads from controversial provider Taboola

The image of the advertising provider Taboola is not the best: with the so-called The Chumbox-Ads that, in the opinion of many users, contain clickbait, it markets ad space under many articles on the web and in apps. The adtech company, which merged with similarly operated competitor Outbrain a few years ago, now has a very special new client: Apple. This is reported by the American business magazine Axios. Accordingly, should in at least three countries Taboola ads now appear directly in two of the iPhone maker’s apps.

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Not yet available in the EU

These are the News and Stocks applications on iOS, but apparently also other systems such as iPadOS and macOS. Although News has only been active in the United States, Great Britain and Canada for years, according to Axios, the deal also applies to these markets. Until recently, Apple also ran News links in the EU through a widget, which no longer populates. Taboola confirmed the contract with Apple to Axios; Apple initially did not comment. The adtech company has tried to build trust with Apple for several years, it further said. Taboola is known for its excellent sales team, which helped generate sales of around $1.4 billion in 2023.

Apple appears to be particularly interested in Taboola’s reach; the adtech group is present in several countries and is said to have access to more than 9,000 publishing partners as well as 18,000 media agencies and advertisers. Most of the business relationships are direct and not through marketing platforms. According to Axios, Taboola will now become an “authorized ad reseller” and take charge of the placement of native ads in the two apps. These can appear in the main feed of the app as well as in individual articles. It is also significantly more difficult for users to filter out the ads, for example through a VPN with filters. Safari Content Blocker However, this doesn’t appear to be working.

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Criticism from the Apple scene

This announcement caused much criticism within the Apple scene, such as from renowned independent developer Michael Tsai His blog briefly explains Analyst and investor Om Malik wrote that he doesn’t understand how Apple makes money using this method. Raising prices for subscription services instead of advertising would have been sufficient, he said. Investor and former journalist MG Siegler wrote that the typical Taboola ads were “terrible” and “clickbait”. It’s “shocking” that Apple is helping distribute these on the web. But it’s also conceivable that Apple controls exactly which ads Taboola is allowed to serve.

Blogger John Gruber, who has good contacts in Cupertino, commented that the ads in the news app are already bad. “If you would have told me a few years ago that ads were sold by Taboola, I would have said, oh, that makes sense.” The ads he sees remind him of Chumbox advertising. “It’s even worse, they repeat themselves too often.”

(B.Sc.)