Despite Apple’s privacy changes with iOS 14.5, Facebook reports record ad revenue for Q2 2021

Facebook recently announced its fiscal 2021 second-quarter results with a record $29 billion in revenue, which is a 56% year-over-year growth. It seems that Apple’s anti-tracking privacy changes launched in iOS 14.5 have no impacted the social media giant as much as it was expecting.

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Facebook reports record revenue for Q2 2021

The social media giant held its Q2 earnings call today and announced that its advertising revenue had passed $28 billion, a 56% year-over-year increase. Facebook’s CFO, David Wehner said that the company expects to see the proper impact Apple’s anti-tracking privacy feature has on its ad revenue in the third quarter.

“We continue to expect increased ad targeting headwinds in 2021 from regulatory and platform changes, notably the recent iOS updates, which we expect to have a greater impact in the third quarter compared to the second quarter.”

Wehner went on to say that Facebook still has not fully rolled out the privacy changes the Cupertino tech giant launched with iOS 14.5 back in April. The CFO did not specify what kind of impact the company expects from enforcing Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature but did say that they will be able to contain it.

“We’re not fully rolled out with those changes, but Q3 will have the impact more or less of those meaningfully rolled out,” he said.

Apple ATT prompt - Facebook

Apple’s App Tracking Transparency gives users the option to choose if they want an app to track their activity across apps and the web. The feature is aimed at giving users more control over their data and ensures their privacy by ending invasive tracking.

After the feature was announced, Facebook launched an ad campaign accusing Apple of being an enemy of small businesses. The company also took out full-page newspaper ads criticizing the feature. However, in March, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the impact of the ATT update will be manageable. In an interview, Zuckerberg also said that the App Tracking Transparency feature might be beneficial for e-commerce on Instagram.

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About the Author

Asma is an editor at iThinkDifferent with a strong focus on social media, Apple news, streaming services, guides, mobile gaming, app reviews, and more. When not blogging, Asma loves to play with her cat, draw, and binge on Netflix shows.