Apple v Facebook

This may be the first post ever on this site that has anything to do directly with stock market. Meta (Facebook) is down 20% today after an earnings call that showed a significant decline in revenue. Meta claims the downturn is the result of Apple changes to iOS14 that make it easy for iPhone users to avoid Facebook ads. No ads no ad revenue. This is tough for a free service that depends on ads to keep things going. Investors who need the companies they support to make money are bailing.

The interaction of the various tech companies is interesting. Apple tried ads but gave up. Google has some software of its own but mostly encourages android phone developers. Meta has the users and the content that allows the display of ads. Apple wants to push privacy and the other two major players need to have content with ads and Facebook is such a popular service so a prime opportunity for displaying ads. What next? Facebook could simply pull the free Facebook app from the Apple store. Using a browser to view Facebook on an iPhone is not a good experience. Would that be like threatening a nuclear option?

The relevance for education – targeted ads fund many free online services used in education.

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