When Apple announced on Monday that John Ternus would succeed Tim Cook as its chief executive in September, the immediate message was one of continuity: a hardware chief taking the reins at a hardware company.
But quietly, under Cook, Apple has also become one of the most formidable advertising businesses in the world, generating an estimated $7 billion in related revenues in 2025, per the market research firm Omdia.
The vast majority of Apple Ads’ revenue, around 95%, comes from the App Store, where the Cupertino company charges app developers to promote their products in its Search bar. The company also displays ads in Apple News and Stocks.
But Apple has largely defined itself in contrast to its technological competitive set, made up of hyper-scale advertising firms like Meta, Google, and, increasingly, Amazon. To do so, it has kept many of its core surfaces unavailable to marketers, and it has distinguished itself through its emphasis on consumer privacy.
These tactics have served it well so far, but such a market positioning is at odds with scaling an advertising business. Careful expansion and a fixation on data security have not, historically, been hallmarks of the digital advertising industry.
