Shares of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media and digital advertising and marketing jobs are down dramatically in after-hours trading after Snap revealed that revenue estimates were missed in the third quarter due to Apple's iPhone privacy rules disrupting its advertising business. Snap also cautioned that supply chain issues restricted short-term advertising investment because companies did not want to stimulate demand for products they might not have in store.
After hours, Facebook and Twitter both fell by as much as 6% and 5%, respectively, while Alphabet, Google jobs, and Pinterest also fell by more than 2%. Following reports on Wednesday that PayPal was considering an acquisition, Pinterest fell more than 2% in regular trading. Next week, Facebook, Alphabet, and Twitter are expected to release profits.
Digital advertising companies that leverage customer data were also affected. The Trade Desk and Magnite each dropped more than 5%, while Liveramp dropped more than 3% after hours.
Technology businesses have long been concerned about the privacy shift known as ATT, or App Tracking Transparency, which asks users whether they wish to opt-in for tracking via a pop-up. According to critics, it will make it far more difficult for advertisers to track the success of their digital commercials.
