Ned Segal, chief financial officer of Twitter
John Chiala | CNBC
Twitter chief financial officer Ned Segal said Wednesday that the social media company is confident when preparing for Apple’s planned privacy update to iOS 14, which will make it easier for iPhone and iPad users that companies can track their business and target their ads.
“We see the unique signal that Twitter has with a growing audience, with better formats and more relevance and the ability to make better use of that signal, much of which is not tied to device identification,” Segal told Morgan Stanley Conference on Technology, Media and Telecom. “We feel great about our ability to take advantage of that combination.”
Apple’s upcoming privacy changes will inform users about tracking device identification and ask if they want to allow it. Tracking is based on a unique device identifier on each iPhone and iPad called IDFA. Companies that sell mobile ads use this identifier to help target your ads and estimate their effectiveness.
Apple has said the change will extend earlier this spring.
Segal said the changes to IDFA could present an opportunity for Twitter to compete more effectively against its peers.
“IDFA will in a way be equalizing the playing field. We are in an industry where many were much better than Twitter when it came to taking advantage of all the data they had at their disposal, from device identification to what they made people websites, ”Segal said. “When we all have the same set of new challenges that we have to face, a level playing field will be a really interesting impact on the industry in general.”
Segal said Twitter plans to sit back and wait instead of immediately asking its iOS users if they want to opt for IDFA tracking, as Facebook plans to do.
“We don’t want to be in a hurry around IDFA,” he said. “You only have one chance to ask someone if you can access their device ID to show them more relevant ads. You want to ask for it in a very thoughtful way and you want to spend time learning about the industry and the ecosystem. wider before asking such a question “.