A new report reveals that Apple was Twitter’s biggest advertiser in Q1 2022, accounting for almost $50 million in revenue. Elon Musk now claims Tim Cook’s company has “mostly stopped advertising” on Twitter, a move that comes during the busy holiday shopping season. The loss of such a major customer could be a problem for Musk’s Twitter before even taking into account Apple’s threat to drop the platform from the App Store.
The Washington Post reports that Twitter owner Elon Musk recently claimed that tech giant Apple has “mostly stopped advertising” on the platform. Musk tweeted directly at Apple CEO Tim Cook asking him to explain why.
(Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images, BNN Edit)
What’s going on here @tim_cook?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Musk later claimed that Apple had threatened to remove the Twitter app from its App Store, but hadn’t told Musk why it was doing so. Shortly afterward, Musk highlighted the 30 percent tax Apple charges to developers for all in-app purchases on its platform:
Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Did you know Apple puts a secret 30% tax on everything you buy through their App Store? https://t.co/LGkPZ4EYcz
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Now, a new report claims that Apple was the top advertiser on Twitter in the first quarter of 2022, spending approximately $48 million on ads on the social network. Apple’s spending alone accounted for more than four percent of Twitter’s revenue in that quarter.
This highlights the immense power that Apple has over Twitter, not only could Apple shut off updates and access to the Twitter app on its app store — cutting off a large portion of Twitter’s userbase — but if the company cuts ties with Twitter completely, it could cut off a major source of revenue for the platform.
Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), who has previously led efforts to pass antitrust legislation targeting big tech companies, stated: “This is why we need to end the App Store duopoly before the end of this year. No one should have this kind of market power.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at Monday’s briefing that the Biden administration was “keeping an eye on” Musk’s command of Twitter. “We have always been very clear that when it comes to social media platforms, it is their responsibility to make sure that when it comes to misinformation, when it comes to the hate that we’re seeing, that they take action,” Jean-Pierre said.
