Musk says Apple has resumed full advertising on Twitter
Twitter CEO Elon Musk has said that Apple has now “fully resumed” advertising on the social network, claiming that the iPhone maker is Twitter’s largest advertiser.
Musk’s claims comes days after the new Twitter CEO lashed out at Apple after suggesting the company hated “free speech” after supposedly threatening to pull Twitter from the App Store after it “mostly stopped” advertising on the platform.
Musk met with Apple CEO Tim Cook last week for a private meeting, which saw Musk backtrack and claim that Apple never intended to remove Twitter from the App Store, saying there had been a “misunderstanding.”
According to The Washington Post, Apple was the top advertiser on Twitter in the first quarter of 2022, spending $48 million on ads on the social network, accounting for more than 4 percent of Twitter’s revenue that quarter.
Since taking over Twitter, Musk has seen many advertisers withdraw their spend as the social network goes through fairly turbulent times including mass staff layoffs, a push to move users to the service’s pay-monthly subscription service, and the ability for any user to show a blue verification badge on their profile, without any authentication checks prior.
Apple never fully pulled away from advertising on Twitter after Musk’s takeover however, many brands including Coca-Cola, Verizon, Volkswagen, and others have stopped serving ads on Twitter altogether, with Musk said to have personally called the CEOs of some brands to try and persuade them to continue working with the company, according to the Financial Times.