Apple Inc is planning to expand its advertising business by adding a second advertising slot in its App Store search page's "suggested" section, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.
The new advertising slot, which will be rolled out by the end of the month, will allow advertisers to promote their apps across the whole network, rather than in response to specific searches, according to the report.
The report comes as Apple plans to send prompts to iPhone users to allow apps to use their data for personalized advertising, a move that has drawn backlash from tech rival Facebook Inc, which argues the changes will hurt the social media company's ad business.
Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Facebook Inc said on Wednesday it is making changes to its advertising tools to comply with an upcoming privacy update by Apple Inc, limiting the effectiveness of data collection features used by advertisers.
The world's biggest social media company has been at loggerheads with Apple's 'App Tracking Transparency' feature, expected to kick in with the latest iPhone software update next week, which allows users to block advertisers from tracking them across different applications.
Apple says it defends data privacy rights, but faces criticism from Facebook, app developers and startups whose business models rely on advertising tracking.
Facebook said on Wednesday the changes on its ad tools would limit the ways in which target audiences can be selected and how the success of an ad campaign is measured.
The company said it is investing in privacy-enhancing technologies to minimize the amount of data collected from users.
Facebook and Apple have also tangled over commission fees the iPhone maker charges apps listed on iOS devices, with the social media giant backing small developers most affected by the policy.
Reuters