The company is taking distance from the direct involvement in the advertising business. The platform itself is not going anywhere, but Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) will not manage the selling and creation of iAd’s units. It will be a more automated and self-served system, sources said.
Creation, selling and management will be left to the publishers, as reported by BuzzFeed News. One source from the company said that the advertising business was something they were “not good at”.
The publishers will be able to sell their material through the platform without any third-party associates. They will receive 100 % of the revenue they generate from iAd.
The currents advertising campaigns will continue remaining revenue until June 30, but when the time comes, the pioneer company will not longer take a 30 percent cut of generated ad revenue as they have done before. They are not accepting any app into their network anymore.
“The big publishing groups will just fold programmatic buys into the stuff they are selling across all their properties” an Apple’s source added. The sale team members from the app will be offered buyouts and released.
Advertising industry sources said it could be great for publishers, that it will give them direct contact and dialogue with their customers without any participation from Apple. They referred to the access as more “plentiful and easier to manage”.
The iAd launch announcement took place in 2010, and was Steve Jobs who made it. He promised a new vision for mobile advertising, and referred to the current 2010-one as a “sucky” one. He also promised interactive ads inside Iphone and Ipad that would not require to leave the app the user was currently using.
The iAd’s platform did exactly what Jobs promised, although Apple’s current CEO once declared in 2014 that the iAd was a “very small” part of the company’s business. Apparently, the platform cost too much and does not generate the incomes they were expecting.
Source: BuzzFeed News