It’s easy to forget just how powerful Apple is...until something like yesterday happens then it all comes rushing back.

After revealing that an Apple privacy change was denting its ad business Thursday evening, Snap stock plunged 27% yesterday—its worst day ever—and dragged other social media stocks like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest down with it. In all, more than $150 billion in value was wiped out.

What did Apple do? In April, Apple introduced a privacy feature that asks users whether they want to be tracked by apps. If users opt out, apps like Snapchat won’t be able to target them with the most relevant ads. Then, once a campaign is over, collecting and analyzing data to see how it went also becomes a challenge.

Basically, Apple threw a smoothie on the mobile ad market’s windshield. And while its impacts were projected to be bad, “Apple iOS ad changes played out worse than virtually anyone had expected in Snap's Q4 outlook,” JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth wrote.

Did anyone benefit from the update?

There is one company whose ad business is booming, and its name is...you might want to sit down for this...Apple.

As it undercut its rivals’ visibility with its privacy update, Apple has become a major player in advertising, more than tripling its market share since it introduced the feature six months ago.

• “It’s like Apple Search Ads has gone from playing in the minor leagues to winning the World Series in the span of half a year,” Alex Bauer, head of product marketing at Branch, told the Financial Times.

Apple’s ad business will earn $5 billion this year and $20 billion per year within three years, according to estimates from Evercore ISI.

Looking ahead...this story will only heat up next week, when Alphabet, Facebook, and Twitter report their earnings.—NF

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