Apple discussed with Facebook to have part of its income

Apple and Facebook are currently in conflict, including a demand for privacy from the side of the iPhone manufacturer and a lack of money because of advertising which is becoming more complicated for the social network since the system of iOS anti-tracking. But before this story, the two groups discussed a revenue split.

Apple wanted part of Facebook’s revenue

According to wall street journal, Apple and Facebook had discussions between 2016 and 2018 with the former wanting the latter to create a version of its application with a subscription, while removing advertisements. Apple could thus have taken a 30% commission on each subscription via the App Store. But the social network did not buy into the idea.

Apple then argued that Facebook’s in-app post boost feature, which allows Facebook Pages to promote a post to a wider audience for a fee, should have been considered an in-app purchase and therefore subject to Apple’s 30% commission.

An Apple spokesperson reacted to the revelation of these discussions: “every day we meet and collaborate with developers of all sizes to provide suggestions, address concerns, and help them continue to grow their businesses”. He added that the rules for app developers like Facebook are “applied equally to all developers because we believe fair application results in the best user experience”.

Another spokesperson assured that there was no connection between the partnership discussions and the ad tracking changes that have been implemented. The system that allows you to refuse tracking by an application was implemented with iOS 14.5 in April 2021.

According to an estimate by Lotame, a data management company, iOS anti-tracking caused Facebook, Twitter, Snap and YouTube to lose $17.8 billion in revenue in 2022.