Main points
- Apple plans to integrate advertising into Apple Maps, allowing businesses to compete for advertising spots in search results.
- This move is part of a strategy to increase revenue from services, which already generate over $100 billion a year.
Apple / Apple wants to earn more through advertising in Maps
Apple is planning to add advertising to its Maps service. The new tool will be part of a strategy to grow revenue from the service and could be launched in the coming months.
Apple is preparing to integrate ads into Apple Maps , expanding its services business. The launch may be announced soon, and the ads themselves will appear in the summer. This is reported by Bloomberg .
How will advertising work in Apple Maps?
The mechanics will be similar to the model used by Google Maps . Businesses will be able to compete for advertising space in search results. For example, a restaurant could pay for the query “sushi” to be listed first.
A similar approach is already being used by Yelp , where companies can also promote their services through paid positions in the search results.
For Apple, it's part of a broader strategy to grow its services revenue, which now makes up more than $100 billion a year and more than a quarter of its total revenue, up from less than 10% a decade ago.
However, the services business is facing challenges. Regulators in various countries are putting pressure on the App Store model, forcing the company to change its rules. In addition, the multi-billion dollar deal with Alphabet for Google Search has come under question, especially as AI search technologies develop .
As GSMarena writes, advertising could be a way to compensate for the potential drop in revenue in these areas. Although the company's advertising business is still relatively small, analysts estimate that it could bring in about $8.5 billion in 2026.
The advertising division is headed by Todd Teresi, who reports to Eddy Cue. Last year, the company renamed its advertising division from Search Ads to Apple Ads, underscoring its ambitions in this segment.
The introduction of ads in Maps is just one part of a broader expansion. Apple has previously added new ad slots to the App Store, is using advertising opportunities in Major League Soccer broadcasts on the Apple TV platform, and is developing monetization in the News app and podcast service.
It is expected that advertising in Maps will appear not only on the iPhone , but also on other company devices and in the web version of the service.