iOS privacy policy changes cost social media companies nearly $10 billion

Social media platforms including Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and YouTube have suffered huge losses since Apple introduced its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy last year, a Financial Times investigation has found .

The policy came into effect in April this year. The new iOS App Store policy requires that applications must obtain user permission before tracking data. Applications will not be able to track the behavior of users who choose to refuse the service .

The four social media platforms lost about 12% of their revenue in the third and fourth quarters, roughly equivalent to $9.85 billion, according to estimates by advertising technology company Lotame.

Since the new iOS policy was introduced, most users have chosen to refuse to be tracked , which makes advertisers unsure how to target users to push ads . For this reason , many advertisers cut spending on platforms such as Snap chat, Facebook , Twitter and YouTube , and shifted their budgets elsewhere .

However , compared with other social platforms, Facebook has the most to lose due to its large-scale advertising business , and the cost of running ads on Facebook's iOS platform has been rising over the years .

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that privacy policy changes in iOS had a negative impact on its business when addressing Apple 's App Store policies. Zuckerberg said in a conference call after announcing third-quarter results late last month that the company did encounter revenue challenges during the quarter .

In fact, Apple's privacy policy changes have not only had a negative impact on Facebook's business, but also on millions of small businesses. For these small businesses , this is another heavy blow under the economic blow.

Facebook COO Sheryl   Sandberg said that in fact , these effects have existed since iOS 14. These policy changes in iOS are beneficial to Apple 's own advertising business, resulting in a decrease in the accuracy of advertising targeting for other companies and an increase in their advertising costs.

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