Twitter ad revenue plunges: 4 points of contention between Musk and Apple – BBC News 中文

In a series of tweets on Monday (November 28), Musk accused Apple of “censorship” and criticized Apple’s policies, including charging for purchases in the App Store.

“Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter,” Musk said. “Do they hate free speech in America?” he said.

Musk also claimed that Apple threatened to remove Twitter from the app store, without explaining why. Musk tweeted directly at Apple CEO Tim Cook, asking: “What’s going on @tim_cook?”

Musk, who bought Twitter for $44 billion last month, has come under pressure after some companies stopped advertising on the site.

Musk has said he hopes to make money by turning Twitter authentication into a paid subscription service, but right now the vast majority of Twitter’s revenue comes from advertising.

According to the Washington Post, Apple is the largest advertiser on Twitter, spending $48 million on Twitter in the first quarter of 2022.

Global companies including General Mills, maker of the Cheerios breakfast cereal brand, and Volkswagen have halted their spending on Twitter ads in recent weeks.

Watchdog website Media Matters reported last week that half of Twitter’s top advertisers had pulled their ads on the platform amid concerns about the company’s direction.

Apple’s media arm, Omnicom, has advised the Silicon Valley giant to stop advertising on Twitter due to concerns about “Apple’s brand safety,” The Verge reported.

Analysis by James Clayton, BBC North America technology correspondent:

Musk has discovered who really wields the power over social media companies.

The billionaire notoriously doesn’t like being told what to do. When it comes to Twitter, however, Apple holds all its cards.

First, as others have discovered, who gets access to Apple’s app store is a matter for Apple alone. If Apple wanted to, it could prevent Twitter from being downloaded to iPhones around the world. This would be a heavy blow to Twitter.

Not only that, but Apple can charge whatever it wants for the privilege of accessing the App Store. For a company like Twitter, it can charge 15-30% for in-app store purchases.

Epic Games, the maker of the Fortnite game, has challenged the fee in a US court. In 2021, the company filed a lawsuit against Apple over the so-called “walled garden” – the commission of the app store.

Finally, Apple has the right to stop advertising on Twitter, which is an important source of income for Twitter.

Musk is not the first to point out this power asymmetry. (Zuckerberg’s) Meta has complained for years about Apple’s dominance over its Instagram and Facebook apps.

Now that Musk has appeared, Apple has another rich and powerful rival.

By choosing to take on Apple, Musk is actually participating in a wider debate about the power Apple has over online activity through its App Store, where iPhone users download games and other apps instead.

Currently, Apple can take up to 30% of the monthly fees Twitter plans to charge users.

In this regard, Musk tweeted an emoticon pack: At the fork in the road, a road sign reads “Pay 30%”, another road sign reads “Resist”, and in the direction of the arrow pointing to ” Resist”, there is a car. and go

All companies listed in the app store must abide by Apple’s rules and pay fees, or face removal or suspension of purchases.

Last year, Apple suspended the social media platform Parler from the App Store, saying the platform was not doing a good enough job of removing hate speech.

Later, after Parler updated its policy, Apple relisted the platform in the App Store.