Picture: Paul Sakuma / Keystone
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Meta under pressure – Part 4: the Apple Menace

Samuel Buchmann
5.10.2022
Translation: Patrik Stainbrook

Negative headlines surrounding Meta and its Facebook and Instagram brands are piling up. Is Mark Zuckerberg facing his downfall? Part four in a series on the tech giant’s problems.

Differences between the two companies have only grown over the years. And it’s all coming to a head in a war of ideals threatening Meta’s future. Welcome to the penultimate part of my series on Mark Zuckerberg’s problems: the Apple Menace. If you missed the last instalment, you can find it here:

A financial earthquake

On 2 February 2022, Meta’s stock price crashed. By 26 per cent. Mark Zuckerberg’s corporation lost $251 billion in value in a single day – more than any US company in history. Zuckerberg himself went to bed that night 29 billion dollars poorer than he was that morning.

Now, Meta’s stock is worth less than half of what it was a year ago

.

Small spark, roaring inferno

The result of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency for Mark Zuckerberg: an estimated ten billion dollars in lost revenue. That’s eight per cent of Meta’s total sales. A catastrophe.

The result for Mark Zuckerberg: an estimated ten billion in lost revenue. That’s eight per cent of Meta’s total sales. A catastrophe.

Data protection as a business model

We believe that privacy is a fundamental human right.
Apple CEO Tim Cook on Twitter
The repeated careless handling of user information created and solidified Meta’s image as an untrustworthy, data-munching monster.

The Clash of the Titans has only just begun

It’s a very deep, philosophical competition about what direction the internet should go in.
Mark Zuckerberg in July 2022 in an internal meeting
Header image: Picture: Paul Sakuma / Keystone

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