Apple’s beef with Meta (aka FaceBook)
It was revealed this week that Meta intends to take a 47.5% commission on the purchases of digital content and assets inside its planned ‘metaverse’. The fee is broken down into two components: A 30% hardware fee and a platform fee of 17.5%.
Meta has taken aim at Apple for their App Store practices. Namely, the 30% commission that Apple collects on in-app purchases and its general approach to app distribution:
Apple has this unique stranglehold as a gatekeeper on what gets on phones,” Zuckerberg said to more than 50,000 employees via webcast. He added that the Cupertino, California–based company’s app store “blocks innovation, blocks competition” and “allows Apple to charge monopoly rents
Mark Zuckerberg via Buzzfeed
Given the criticism that Meta has directed towards Apple recently, it comes as no surprise that Apple, with a certain sense of satisfaction no doubt, has seized the moment to retaliate.
Meta has repeatedly taken aim at Apple for charging developers a 30% commission for in-app purchases in the App Store — and have used small businesses and creators as a scapegoat at every turn,” Apple spokesman Fred Sainz stated in an email to MarketWatch. “Now — Meta seeks to charge those same creators significantly more than any other platform. [Meta’s] announcement lays bare Meta’s hypocrisy. It goes to show that while they seek to use Apple’s platform for free, they happily take from the creators and small businesses that use their own.
Fred Sainz, Apple via Marketwatch
The AppleTLDR Take
In the past few years, Apple and Meta’s relationship has soured significantly. It wasn’t that long ago that Facebook was integrated into iOS giving users the ability to sign in right in the settings app. But the technology landscape has changed a lot since then. The two companies have taken diametrically opposed views on user privacy, monetisation and data collection.
Apple makes the majority of its money through the sales of hardware, software and subscription services. Meta by contract makes the majority of its profits through ad revenue. The latter of course is infinitely more effective when more user data is harvested. At least with the most common ad technologies. Meta was particularly aggrieved by Apple’s ‘ATT’ or ‘App Tracking Transparency’. It essentially shuts down the ability to track iOS users across apps and the web. Not ideal for Facebook ad targeting. It’s perhaps no wonder then, that the two companies aren’t on good terms.
Apple’s suppliers board the green energy train
Apple has announced that more than 200 of its suppliers are now committed to using green energy sources. They have more than doubled the use of clean alternatives compared to last year. Apple states that this has avoided 13.9 million metric tons of carbon emissions. This seems to be a really significant step forward in the tech giants’ aim to become carbon neutral across their supply chain by 2030.
Furthermore, Apple is continuing to invest heavily in renewables such as solar, wind and tidal energy. And that coupled with continued efforts to use renewable or recyclable materials, will push Apple closer to achieving a closed-loop supply chain
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