Zaid Admani

Apple is about to put ads in Apple Maps.

According to Bloomberg reporter and friend of the show, Mark Gurman,

Apple is planning to monetize Maps as soon as this summer.

So you know like how in Google Maps, if you search for something like dry cleaners nearby, sometimes the first few results are sponsored.

That's because businesses are paying to be shown as a top search results in Maps.

Well, now that same thing is gonna be happening on Apple Maps.

Now, it's funny, you would think that company like Apple would be beneath showing ads in their products, right?

But no, Apple is actually expected to make about $8.5 billion from ads this year.

This is all part of Apple's push to grow their services revenue, which currently brings in about $100 billion of year, making more than a quarter of their total revenue.

Now, a lot of that is Apple taking a 30% cut from the App Store, which is now under threat from regulators.

So Apple is trying to diversify their services revenue in case they have to reduce the cut that they can collect from the app store.

And they're doing what every big tech company does, which is turn everything into a billboard.

And by the way, this isn't just Maps.

Apple has been quietly adding ads across their entire ecosystem, including the app store, news, and even Apple TV.

On a side note, I gotta say Apple Maps is actually pretty solid these days.

I know it used to be a laughing stock.

Now I'm still a Google Maps guy in most cases, but if I'm connected to a car with CarPlay, I use Apple Maps most of the time because it just looks better.

That might be a controversial take.

Let me know what you guys think in the comments on Spotify and YouTube.

Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today.