Will it be another false alarm or a real launch? Apple Maps may be jumping into the paid ad business to go head-to-head with its chief rival, Google Maps.
Location Business News reported back in February that Apple AAPL 0.00%↑ had an all-hands Maps meeting on ways to monitize the app. Last week, in another round of trade magazine articles quoting the same reporter, said that Apple was serious this time.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said, even though there may be consumer backlash, that Apple may launch the ads next year. He said that Apple may do what Google GOOG 0.00%↑ does in that it would rank a restaurant higher in a search result as a result of a paid ad. In addition, businesses could pay more to have their actual locations highlighted on the map.
Last year, Apple Maps, which is not offered to Android users, had 500 million active users, which is dwarfed by Google Maps’ 2 billion monthly active users.
“Along with rapidly changing time comes the rapidly changed behavior of the users. In a 2023 antitrust case against Google, evidence showed that Google Maps usage on iPhones had significantly declined since Apple had switched over to its own mapping,” according to a published report.
While Apple made more than $124 billion in revenue for the first quarter, it indicated that its services revenue rose dramatically to $26.34 billion, which may be a reason the company wants to monetize Maps more.
