What you need to know
- Apple has hired Antonio Garcia Martinez.
- The former Facebook executive will join Apple's ad platforms product engineering team.
Apple has just made a major hire for its advertising efforts.
As reported by Business Insider (via AppleInsider), Apple has hired Antonio Garcia Martinez, the former Product Manager for advertising at Facebook.
Garcia Martinez, who is also known for authoring the autobiography "Chaos Monkeys," joined Apple in April as part of the company's ad platforms product engineering team. He will be based in Cupertino, according to Business Insider.Apple's ad platforms team works on advertising technology within the App Store and in other locations across Apple's ecosystem, including Apple News and the Stocks app.Garcia Martinez worked at Facebook between 2011 and 2013, and became an influential figure on the company's ad product team. He worked on ad targeting efforts and eventually became product manager of FBX, Facebook's now defunct ad exchange.
Martinez's arrival could indicate that Apple is looking to expand its own privacy-focused advertising business. iOS 14.5 introduced App Tracking Transparency, a feature that requires apps to ask permissions from users in order to track them across apps for advertising purposes. A recent survey found that only 4% of iPhone users who updated to iOS 14.5 allowed apps to track them. This could create a perfect opportunity for Apple to build its own privacy-focused advertising structure into its products.
Alongside Garcia Martinez, Apple also appears to be expanding the scope of its ads teams. As of Monday, May 10, Apple has about 50 open roles related to ad platforms. That includes one listing that suggests Apple is forming a new team focused on fighting fraudulent ad traffic.It does appear that Apple is looking to be a different kind of advertising company than rivals like Facebook or Google. One job listing suggests that Apple is hiring engineers that could help it set standards for "effective advertising while protecting user privacy."
