A new report from The Wall Street Journal has detailed how Apple wanted a “slice of Facebook’s revenue” and discussed multiple deals for “revenue-sharing arrangements.”

Facebook and Apple have been in a privacy battle ever since the Cupertino-giant released iOS 14.5 with App Tracking Transparency. Meta has been vocal about how Apple’s policies have severely decreased the company’s revenue. Apple, on the other hand, argues that the changes have been implemented in the public interest. 

The report from The Wall Street Journal has detailed that years before App Tracking Transparency launched, Apple tried to crack a deal with Facebook as it looked to “build businesses together.” 

According to the report, Apple once proposed a deal with Facebook to build a subscription-based version of its app without ads. This proposed version would be sold through the App Store as an in-app purchase, thus giving Apple its standard 15% to 30% commission, the report claims.

Apple even argued that the feature to boost a post on Facebook should also be an in-app purchase and be subjected to App Store’s commission. It is, however, not the case. 

In the years before the change, Apple suggested a series of possible arrangements that would earn the iPhone maker a slice of Facebook’s revenue, according to people who either participated in the meetings or were briefed about them. As one person recalled: Apple officials said they wanted to “build businesses together.”

To today’s report, Apple, unsurprisingly, argues that all the App Store rules are applied equally to all developers and that there “is no connection between any discussions of partnerships and the ad-tracking changes that were later implemented.” 

App Tracking Transparency, since its launch more than a year ago, has cost the advertising industry $17.8 billion in revenue. The report goes into the depths of Apple’s and Facebook’s differing approaches to user privacy, which you can read using the link given below. 

Source: The Wall Street Journal