Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook’s parent company Meta, backed up new Twitter boss Elon Musk, blasting Apple’s lack of neutrality and conflict of interest stance on app store policies.
In an interview at the New York Times DealBook conference yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg said, “Having one company (Apple) control the app experience on a device is problematic, and I don’t think it’s a good place to be sustainable, with the vast majority of profits in the mobile ecosystem going to Apple.”
Mark Zuckerberg contrasted Apple with Google. The latter allows users to freely download apps to their Android smartphones without having to rely on the Google App Store. He said: “Google always does this so you can use other app stores and work directly with phone manufacturers. That’s the same promise we gave when we built the VR and AR headsets.”
App store policies and the practice of charging commissions on in-app purchases implemented by Apple, as well as Google’s parent company Alphabet, have long been a point of contention for tech companies seeking to reach a wide audience. Elon Musk joined the fray after his acquisition of Twitter, posting a series of tweets this week decrying the high fees Apple charges and restrictions on app sales. Elon Musk said Apple had also threatened to take Twitter down from the app store.
Mark Zuckerberg agreed with some of Elon Musk’s points. He called Apple’s content review rules for apps a “conflict of interest” because they often target Apple’s own app competitors. This makes Apple “more than a manager who cares about the interests of its users. Meta’s revenue has been hit hard by Apple’s tightened privacy policy, which limits the way users can be tracked and targeted through ads, and the company’s market value has shrunk by two-thirds this year.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has long been critical of Facebook’s reliance on user data for its business, even linking the company’s algorithmic model to violent actions by extremist groups because of the app’s questionable approach to recommending content.
Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday that Apple is not a neutral player and has many of its own “strategic interests” to consider.
Asked about the way Elon Musk manages Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg was somewhat vague in his comments. He said, “I suspect some ways will work and others will not. I think it will be very interesting to see how things follow.” As for whether Meta will allow former U.S. President Donald Trump to return to Facebook, as Twitter recently did, Mark Zuckerberg said the company’s oversight board will make the final decision.
In the interview, Mark Zuckerberg was also asked about his approach to the meta-universe. He argued that the idea that Meta is entirely focused on the metaverse is “fundamentally wrong. He said that the instant messaging program WhatsApp would be his next major profit target, as the platform is “largely untapped.
