Apple App Store To Start Showing Ads
Apple will start showing paid ads when people search for apps in its mobile store. The company is also encouraging app-makers to sell more apps on a subscription basis, by promising them a bigger cut of revenue when consumers maintain their subscriptions for at least a year.
These changes are coming sometime later this summer.
Apple said Wednesday that the new ads could help app-makers get more visibility for their products. The company also said it will improve the search tool that helps users find new apps, while promising that wealthy advertisers won't be able to dominate the results.
Apple said it will show no more than one ad, marked in blue, at the top of the list that appears when someone searches for apps by name or subject. Google started showing similar ads in its Play Store last year.
Apple generally keeps 30 percent of the purchase price that app-makers charge consumers. But Apple said it will reduce its share after a consumer has kept the subscription for a year, meaning the developer's take will grow from 70 to 85 percent of the subscription fee.