Apple Maps is About to Change Forever Following Major Search Ad Leak

Apple is getting ready to bring ads to its Maps app, according to a new report from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg.

People familiar with the plans say Apple could announce the change as soon as this month. The idea is pretty simple. Businesses would be able to pay to show up higher in search results inside Apple Maps. These ads could start showing up in Apple Maps on iPhones, iPads and more devices and the web as soon as this summer.

The search ads essentially let any business bid on a search term. When someone searches for the term, the highest bidder will have their business showing at the top of results. It’s like what you see in Google Maps or Yelp.

The move is part of a bigger push to grow Apple’s services business, which already brings in more than $100 billion US a year and now makes up over a quarter of the company’s total revenue.

The advertising effort is led by Todd Teresi, who reports to services chief Eddy Cue. Apple recently rebranded its ad platform from Search Ads to Apple Ads, signaling bigger ambitions in this space.

Ads in a maps app are nothing new, but now Apple customers will start seeing them in Maps, if this report rings true. Apple continues to drive up services revenue while keeping free iCloud storage at 5GB still.