Apple’s privacy rules are having a “negative impact” on Facebook and its business, said Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook.
As a reminder, from version 14.5 of iOS, Apple requires applications to ask users’ permission to follow them on other applications and websites. As part of App Tracking Transparency (ATT), this gives users the choice of whether they wish to be tracked for advertising or other purposes.
In the weeks leading up to ATT’s launch, Facebook has been vocal about its dissatisfaction with the change, explicitly portraying it as unfavorable to small businesses that use its platform to target their customers. When users decline tracking, Facebook and other ad providers have less data for targeted advertising, which can, in an example provided by Facebook, make it more difficult for local businesses to target ads to customers. potentials nearby.
Lower growth.
Continuing his campaign against Apple’s privacy rules, Mark Zuckerberg did not hesitate to accuse Apple of being responsible for the weaker than expected growth of his company in Q3 2021. At a conference, Mark Zuckerberg spoke said Apple was having a “negative impact” on Facebook, but believed the company would be able to “meet” the challenges Apple posed with its long-term investments.
Apple’s changes, according to Zuckerberg, make “Electronic commerce and the acquisition of less efficient customers on the web”. Nevertheless, Facebook could benefit from this reduced efficiency, because “Solutions that allow companies to install directly in our applications will become more and more attractive”, added the CEO of Menlo Park.
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg also criticized Apple and its privacy rules, going so far as to say the new rules negatively impact Facebook while benefiting Apple’s advertising business. Although Facebook faces an avalanche of pressure following leaks of internal documents, Sandberg has singled out Apple for the poor performance of Facebook during this third quarter. “Overall, without the changes Apple made to iOS 14, we would have seen positive quarter-over-quarter revenue growth”, Ms. Sandberg said.
Rejuvenate its users.
An internal document, leaked to the press this week, indicates that Facebook is increasingly concerned about the demographics of young people on its platform. Specifically, Facebook wants to take additional steps to make its platform more appealing to younger users, a part of the online audience that is increasingly turning away from Facebook, according to leaked company documents.
One of the ways Facebook hopes to make its platform more appealing to young users is to distract them from the iMessage platform. Mr. Zuckerberg recently said that iMessage is “growing in popularity”. This could pose a risk to some of Facebook’s messaging platforms, such as Messenger.
Two different visions.
Apple has repeatedly championed the transparency of app tracking, saying it just wants to give users the choice of whether or not to be tracked. In a video posted to its YouTube channel following the launch of ATT, Apple said that “Some applications have built-in plotters that take more data than necessary. They share it with third parties, like advertisers and data brokers… This is happening without your knowledge and without your permission. Your information is for sale. You have become the product. ”
Apple CEO Tim Cook has also spoken on Facebook in the past. In a speech at a privacy conference earlier this year, Cook hinted that platforms like Facebook lead to polarization and violence. “If a business is built on deceiving users, exploiting data, making choices that aren’t choices at all, then it doesn’t deserve our praise. It deserves to be reformed ”, Cook said.
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