Apple decides to change the rules

On 2021 Apple released iOS 14.5, its big new software update for iPhones. It adds a lot of new features, but the one that’s been grabbing headlines is its new privacy change, which gives users more transparency and control over apps that want to track them for advertising.

Apple's long-debated, long-awaited App Tracking Transparency feature and policy will now be fully enforced starting with the release of iOS 14.5.

A large portion of the apps in the App Store for these devices utilizes a tracking technique called ID for Advertisers (IDFA) to track users' activity between multiple apps published by multiple companies, to inform ad targeting and other monetization and data collection techniques.

On 2020, Apple announced that it would begin requiring all apps to ask for users' permission in advance to do this on an app-by-app basis. Anticipating that many users would opt out and that the change would therefore significantly impact revenue, various app developers and ad networks have criticized the move, saying it will hurt big and small businesses alike.

Those critics are not making that up: the move is likely to have a significant impact on the bottomline for many types of apps that rely on advertising for revenue. But Apple maintains that users' control over how they are tracked and how their data is used and accessed is the most important concern at hand.

Current Situation

These Apple changes will impact us as well. However, the primary thing what we can do is to give a better view what is happening in the market. The below table gives insights on how many identified bid requests Eskimi has received in 7 day period. Identifier is important when it comes to targeting and capping. 

Identified Requests - bid requests that had IDFA and received in 7 day period.

Total Requests - all bid requests received in 7 day period.

Identity Rate - indicates percentage of identified traffic from all received traffic. Calculated: IDENTIFIED REQUESTS / TOTAL REQUESTS * 100%

Full country list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jEJrXikDWvqie4oy846fjxtktqq6d02iQxL-JJ8Ak2o/edit?usp=sharing

Insights

88% of all the countries had >50% identified traffic. This indicates that in 88% of all markets over 50% of all received traffic had an identifier. 

63% of all the countries had >60% identified traffic. This indicates that in 63% of all markets over 60% of all received traffic had an identifier. 

25% of all the countries had >70% identified traffic. This indicates that in 25% of all markets over 70% of all received traffic had an identifier. 

6% of all the countries had >80% identified traffic. This indicates that in 6% of all markets over 80% of all received traffic had an identifier. 

While when it comes to daily analytics there is no significant drop for the identified rate. The average identity rate seeks 58%-60% on a global scale. 

The key insight that can be draw from the results is - users are hesitating to adopt iOS 14.5. This is why the rate is still high in all of the markets.