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Big corporate rivalries, like Coca-Cola versus Pepsi, Boeing and Airbus or McDonald’s burgers versus Burger King, usually have one thing in common: the same business dispute.
This is why the enmity between Facebook and Apple is so intriguing.
They are both great tech companies, but this is where the similarities end.
Almost all of the revenue from the social network directed by Mark Zuckerberg comes from advertising, while Apple’s profits are mainly due to the sale of its devices and its virtual App Store.
It can be said that the two companies don’t really compete with each other, they just don’t like each other.
For years, Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, has claimed that Facebook treats its users as “a product” to make money from advertising and that it plays on their privacy.
Zuckerberg, meanwhile, points out that Apple products are expensive and assures that the apple company has ulterior motives for criticizing Facebook.
Last year, according to the New York Times, Apple even suspended Facebook’s development tools for its operating systems.
And the latest chapter in this dispute, which took place last week, worsened relations.
It’s a privacy issue
Earlier this year, Apple announced that it will introduce a new feature to give its users more control over the use of their data accessed by numerous applications.
Essentially, this allows the owner of an Apple device to decide what personal information to share and that their data is not provided by default and used by applications like Facebook.
This can be a big deal for Zuckerberg’s platform because it sells targeted ads to users for jaw-dropping profits.
Facebook openly points out that this initiative from Apple will harm its business.
Meanwhile, the blockbuster has suspended this innovation proposal until next year, so the developers have time to prepare.
Crossfire
In a letter explaining why the change was delayed, released last week, Apple’s Jane Hovarth couldn’t resist hinting at Zuckerberg.
“Facebook executives have made it clear that their intention is to collect as much data as possible. This disregard for user privacy continues to expand, “the public letter states.
Facebook responded by saying that Apple uses “its dominant position in the market to privilege its own data collection, making it nearly impossible for its competitors to use the same information.”
“They claim it’s about privacy, but it’s about profit,” says the social network’s statement.
It’s like pouring salt on an open wound for Apple, which is truly proud to believe it has a more sophisticated business model than Facebook.
In 2010, company co-founder Steve Jobs warned Facebook about user privacy.
And in 2018, Cook said the company could have gone the Facebook route by using the data to sell ads, but they chose not to.
Criticism
Roger McNamee, a Silicon Valley investor and author of “Zucked,” a critical book on Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg, is following the same line.
“Apple’s culture is about empowering its customers, Facebook’s culture is about exploiting its users,” he says.
The tech expert indicates that “historically Apple had many reasons to criticize other people or companies, but chose not to.”
And he points out that Zuckerberg’s criticisms are a response to “how offensive they find Facebook’s behavior.”
However, does Facebook have any points in its favor? Is Apple trying to use its market dominance to freeze its competitors?
Although Apple’s advertising business is relatively small, analyst Morgan Stanley expects its advertising revenue to grow substantially over the next few years.
So is it possible that the company is trying to stop Facebook from collecting user data just to gain an advantage in its favor?
Doubts
One of the most common American television advertisements in late 2020 is Apple’s privacy campaign.
The motto is: “Some things shouldn’t be shared, iPhone helps you do that.”
Apple clearly believes the privacy campaign is popular and it might be odd to undermine it with a Facebook-like data collection policy.
However, the company has been accused for years of being a monopolist.
The company is currently involved in a number of lawsuits over allegations of misusing the App Store to impose unfair terms on developers.
And there are also lawsuits that tell her not to pay all taxes, which the company denies.
Zuckerberg’s answer
The argument of privacy against so-called transparency certainly irritates Zuckerberg.
In 2014, when Cook publicly criticized Facebook for treating its customers like a product, Facebook’s CEO responded from Time magazine.
“One frustration I have is that many people seem to increasingly equate an advertising business model with being out of step with their customers. What, do you think, because they pay Apple, the company is aligned with them?”
“If Apple were with them, it would make their products a lot cheaper,” he said.
And it has some reason: Apple is one of the most profitable companies in the world.
Fake war
The strangest part of this mutual contempt is the co-dependence of the two societies.
The iPhone would be far less attractive to many customers if Facebook (along with WhatsApp and Instagram) were not available for their operating system.
Conversely, would people look to other social media platforms if they couldn’t use Facebook on an iPhone?
It makes sense that both companies seek a strong and healthy working relationship.
Yet they don’t.
Apple expert Carolina Milanesi is one of many who believes that the two companies see the world differently and that the animosity between them is cultural and personal.
“Philosophically, they are different,” he says.
“When you look at Apple, if they feel so convinced of how Facebook is behaving with their customers, then why do we have Facebook as an application on devices?”
And this gets to the heart of the problem.
So far, these have been two companies that don’t get along.
But it was a fake war, their relationship was actually symbiotic.
However, what Apple is proposing now is far from false, its obsession with privacy is not good for Facebook.
Your new rules will harm the social network.
Of all the possible rivalries in technology, Facebook versus Apple seems, at first glance, the least likely.
But the privacy issue has fueled a long-standing fire between the two companies that isn’t dying out.
And in 2021 the rivalry is expected to intensify further.
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