IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_10928.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Evaluating the Impact of Privacy Regulation on E-Commerce Firms: Evidence from Apple’s App Tracking Transparency

Author

Listed:
  • Guy Aridor
  • Yeon-Koo Che
  • Brett Hollenbeck
  • Maximilian Kaiser
  • Daniel McCarthy

Abstract

Assembling novel datasets on online advertiser spending, performance, and revenue, we quantify the economic effects of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) privacy policy on e-commerce firms. We find that conversion-optimized Meta advertisements, affected most by ATT, saw a 37% reduction in click-through rates after ATT. While firms responded by shifting ad spend from Meta to the Google ecosystem, firms with higher baseline Meta dependence nevertheless experienced a 37% decline in firm-wide revenue relative to firms with lower baseline Meta dependence. These declines were primarily borne by smaller e-commerce firms, raising questions about the trade-offs between consumer privacy and the ability of smaller e-commerce and direct-to-consumer firms to succeed in the product market.

Suggested Citation

  • Guy Aridor & Yeon-Koo Che & Brett Hollenbeck & Maximilian Kaiser & Daniel McCarthy, 2024. "Evaluating the Impact of Privacy Regulation on E-Commerce Firms: Evidence from Apple’s App Tracking Transparency," CESifo Working Paper Series 10928, CESifo.
  • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10928
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp10928.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Attila Ambrus & Emilio Calvano & Markus Reisinger, 2016. "Either or Both Competition: A "Two-Sided" Theory of Advertising with Overlapping Viewerships," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(3), pages 189-222, August.
    2. Dmitry Arkhangelsky & Susan Athey & David A. Hirshberg & Guido W. Imbens & Stefan Wager, 2021. "Synthetic Difference-in-Differences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(12), pages 4088-4118, December.
    3. Simon P. Anderson & Stephen Coate, 2005. "Market Provision of Broadcasting: A Welfare Analysis," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(4), pages 947-972.
    4. Jean-Charles Rochet & Jean Tirole, 2003. "Platform Competition in Two-Sided Markets," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 1(4), pages 990-1029, June.
    5. Jian Jia & Ginger Zhe Jin & Liad Wagman, 2021. "The Short-Run Effects of the General Data Protection Regulation on Technology Venture Investment," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(4), pages 661-684, July.
    6. Alexander Bleier & Maik Eisenbeiss, 2015. "Personalized Online Advertising Effectiveness: The Interplay of What, When, and Where," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(5), pages 669-688, September.
    7. Matthew Gentzkow & Jesse M. Shapiro & Frank Yang & Ali Yurukoglu, 2024. "Pricing Power in Advertising Markets: Theory and Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(2), pages 500-533, February.
    8. Salome Baslandze & Jeremy Greenwood & Ricardo Marto & Sara Moreira, 2023. "The Expansion of Varieties in the New Age of Advertising," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 50, pages 171-210, October.
    9. Kenneth C. Wilbur, 2008. "A Two-Sided, Empirical Model of Television Advertising and Viewing Markets," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(3), pages 356-378, 05-06.
    10. Omid Rafieian & Hema Yoganarasimhan, 2021. "Targeting and Privacy in Mobile Advertising," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(2), pages 193-218, March.
    11. Rebecca Janßen & Reinhold Kesler & Michael E. Kummer & Joel Waldfogel, 2022. "GDPR and the Lost Generation of Innovative Apps," NBER Working Papers 30028, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Susan Athey & Emilio Calvano & Joshua S. Gans, 2018. "The Impact of Consumer Multi-homing on Advertising Markets and Media Competition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(4), pages 1574-1590, April.
    13. Cristobal Cheyre & Benjamin T. Leyden & Sagar Baviskar & Alessandro Acquisti, 2023. "Did Apple’s App Tracking Transparency Framework Harm the App Ecosystem?," CESifo Working Paper Series 10456, CESifo.
    14. Salome Baslandze & Jeremy Greenwood & Ricardo Marto & Sara Moreira, 2023. "The Expansion of Product Varieties in the New Age of Advertising," Economie d'Avant Garde Research Reports 37, Economie d'Avant Garde.
    15. Abadie, Alberto & Diamond, Alexis & Hainmueller, Jens, 2010. "Synthetic Control Methods for Comparative Case Studies: Estimating the Effect of California’s Tobacco Control Program," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 105(490), pages 493-505.
    16. Christian Peukert & Stefan Bechtold & Michail Batikas & Tobias Kretschmer, 2022. "Regulatory Spillovers and Data Governance: Evidence from the GDPR," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 41(4), pages 746-768, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Luca Sandrini & Robert Somogyi, 2022. "News Media Bargaining Codes," Working Papers 22-06, NET Institute.
    2. Anderson, Simon P. & Peitz, Martin, 2020. "Media see-saws: Winners and losers in platform markets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    3. Guy Aridor & Rafael Jiménez-Durán & Ro'ee Levy & Lena Song, 2024. "The Economics of Social Media," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(4), pages 1422-1474, December.
    4. Anna D’Annunzio & Antonio Russo, 2024. "Intermediaries in the Online Advertising Market," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(1), pages 33-53, January.
    5. Zennyo, Yusuke, 2020. "Freemium competition among ad-sponsored platforms," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    6. Simon P. Anderson & Martin Peitz, 2023. "Ad Clutter, Time Use, and Media Diversity," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 227-270, May.
    7. Bruno Jullien & Alessandro Pavan & Marc Rysman, 2021. "Two-sided markets, pricing, and network effects," Post-Print hal-03828345, HAL.
    8. Wilfred Amaldoss & Jinzhao Du & Woochoel Shin, 2024. "Pricing Strategy of Competing Media Platforms," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(3), pages 488-505, May.
    9. Calvano, Emilio & Polo, Michele, 2021. "Market power, competition and innovation in digital markets: A survey," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    10. Greiner, Tanja & Sahm, Marco, 2018. "How effective are advertising bans? On the demand for quality in two-sided media markets," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 48-60.
    11. Attila Ambrus & Emilio Calvano & Markus Reisinger, 2016. "Either or Both Competition: A "Two-Sided" Theory of Advertising with Overlapping Viewerships," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(3), pages 189-222, August.
    12. Marco Antonielli & Lapo Filistrucchi, 2011. "Collusion and the political differentiation of newspapers," Working Papers 11-26, NET Institute, revised Nov 2011.
    13. Simon P. Anderson & Øystein Foros & Hans Jarle Kind, 2019. "The importance of consumer multihoming (joint purchases) for market performance: Mergers and entry in media markets," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 125-137, January.
    14. Armando José Garcia Pires, 2023. "Ad-Valorem Taxes, Prices and Content Diversification in the News Market," Games, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-28, March.
    15. Christian Bach & Robert Edwards & Christian Jaag, 2023. "Postal Platform Pricing with Limited Consumer Attention," Working Papers 202318, University of Liverpool, Department of Economics.
    16. Ivaldi, Marc & Zhang, Jiekai, 2020. "Platform Mergers: Lessons from a Case in the Digital TV Market," CEPR Discussion Papers 14895, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Charles Angelucci & Julia Cagé & Michael Sinkinson, 2024. "Media Competition and News Diets," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 62-102, May.
    18. Ramon Casadesus-Masanell & Feng Zhu, 2010. "Strategies to Fight Ad-Sponsored Rivals," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(9), pages 1484-1499, September.
    19. Wilfred Amaldoss & Jinzhao Du & Woochoel Shin, 2021. "Media Platforms’ Content Provision Strategies and Sources of Profits," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(3), pages 527-547, May.
    20. Carl Benedikt Frey & Giorgio Presidente, 2024. "Privacy regulation and firm performance: Estimating the GDPR effect globally," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(3), pages 1074-1089, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    privacy regulation; online advertising; e-commerce;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10928. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.