Apple is reportedly planning to expand its Apple News app to more countries, years after its initial push to the US, Canada, UK, and Australia—all English-speaking countries.
According to the Financial Times, the iPhone maker wants to add new countries to the platform. The publication says that the Apple News app reaches about 125 million people every month and has become a fundamental part of media companies’ revenue.
Even though FT didn’t suggest possible new markets for the Apple News app, it reveals that Apple is considering “building its locally focused news coverage in the UK, while adding its puzzles sections in the country, which is currently only available in the US and Canada.”
If this push is successful, UK readers will have one of the best features available within the News app, a response to The New York Times’s popular puzzle games.
A decade after the initial release of the Apple News app, the platform never expanded globally, which is an ongoing issue with Apple’s products and services. One limitation could be the human-curated job that Apple might not want to expand to non-English-speaking markets. In addition, the company needs to deal with each publication to embark on the platform.
Still, the company has an ambitious plan to scale its News app and improve advertising effectiveness, which could make Apple play a big role as a growing source of revenue for many publishers.
For almost six years, Cupertino has focused on not only selling products, but tying them to must-have services, including Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple Fitness+, and iCloud. Apple’s service business generates $96 billion per year.
Apple News+ is also part of the Apple One Premier subscription. However, it’s limited to a few countries, and expanding the paid platform to more users could help Apple boost its service business.
BGR will let you know once we learn more about Apple’s efforts to expand its news service to more countries and regions. It’s possible that the company focused on the countries currently offering Apple Fitness+, as it could make the Apple One subscription more enticing.
