Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA) is worried about how Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) new privacy rule changes will impact its business, according to a report by The Information (via 9to5 Mac).
What Happened: Alibaba invited half a dozen marketing industry executives last week to discuss how the company can protect its revenue following the introduction of App Tracking Transparency on iOS, as per the report.
However, the meeting at Alibaba headquarters in Hangzhou was reportedly not able to come to a consensus on how to deal with Apple’s new privacy policy.
The privacy rule changes will result in user permission becoming mandatory for displaying targeted advertisements. The privacy rule changes will give users more privacy from mobile advertising but are unpopular with app developers, many of which are small businesses.
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Why It Matters: The Jack Ma-co-founded company is worried whether Apple’s new privacy rules will adversely impact its advertising business, which accounts for 40% of its total revenue. There are more than 300 million active iPhone users in the country.
Alibaba is already grappling with regulatory issues in China and was hit with a record $2.8 billion fine earlier this month for abusing its dominant maker position in the country. The company’s popular UC internet browser was also removed by several internet companies from their app stores in China in March.
Alibaba is not the only company to be worried about the impact of Apple’s privacy rules on its business. Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), the second-largest recipient of advertisement revenues after Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL), has bitterly criticized Apple’s privacy updates for months, saying that the changes would hurt its business and also harm small businesses.
On Wednesday, Facebook warned that Apple’s recently launched iOS14.5 update is expected to have an impact on the social media giant’s revenue in the coming quarters.
It was reported in March that five of China’s biggest tech companies, including Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU), Tencent Holdings Ltd. (OTC: TECHY) and ByteDance, are testing multiple workarounds for Apple’s new privacy feature so as to continue tracking users without their permission. However, Apple warned the Chinese companies not to circumvent its new privacy rules.
Price Action: Alibaba shares closed almost 1.1% lower on Thursday at $234.18.
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