Apple today introduced new ad placements in the App Store, allowing developers to promote their apps in more places, including the main “Today” homepage and individual app listings “You might also like” section at the bottom.
Just a few hours later, some high-profile developers, including Marco Arment, Simon Støvring, and others, complained about ads for obnoxious gambling apps on their own App Store listings that they didn’t control. The issue was also highlighted in a tweet shared by MacStories editor-in-chief Federico Viticci.
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“Now my app’s product page is showing gambling ads, which I really can’t accept,” Arment tweeted. “Apple shouldn’t accept it either.” As Arment points out, Apple gives advertisers the option to show their ads in app categories different from its own, allowing gambling ads to appear in unrelated app listings, such as podcast app Overcast.
The appearance of gambling ads on the App Store as a whole has drawn some criticism, with some accusing Apple of being too greedy and deviating from the company’s policies under former CEO Steve Jobs. Apple earns 15% to 30% of its revenue from ad serving and in-app purchases in gambling apps.
In addition to upsetting some developers, Apple’s allowing apps to run ads in other apps’ listings has led the company to face allegations of anticompetitive behavior. In a tweet last week, legal expert Florian Mueller argued that “you might also like” ads are “another means of increasing the effective app tax rate, forcing developers to buy ads on their app pages to avoid other people attracting users away.”
In August, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said that Apple hopes to nearly triple its current ad revenue in the future to at least $10 billion a year. Starting next year, keyword-based search results ads will appear in Apple’s Maps app, Gurman said. MacRumors has reached out to Apple for comment on whether the company would consider tightening the rules around advertising.
