Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg said it Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has emerged as a strong competitor for the social networking giant.
What happened: Zuckerberg used the opening statement during the fourth-quarter earnings call to paralyze the Cupertino, iPhone maker in California.
The Facebook CEO said that Apple is using its dominance to strengthen its own services, especially its messaging program – iMessage.
“IMessage plays a key role in their ecosystem,” Zuckerberg noted. “It’s pre-installed on every iPhone and prefers it with private APIs and permissions, which is why iMessage is the most used messaging service in the US”
Zuckerberg notes Apple’s efforts to gain a share in the apps and services segment and says the competitive technology giant has “all the incentive to use their dominant platform position to interfere with how our apps and other apps work, which they regularly do to their give preference. “
Management has touched on the upcoming privacy changes in iOS14 – Apple’s latest operating system for its smartphones.
Zuckerberg said it will make it harder for small businesses to reach customers with targeted advertising.
“Apple may say it’s doing it to help people, but the movements are clearly watching their competing interests,” Zuckerberg claims.
Why it matters: Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp messengers are competing products with Apple’s iMessage.
Zuckerberg claims during the conference that Apple and governments have the ability to read the messages of most people on iMessage, emphasizing that WhatsApp is an ‘excellent’ product.
Last month, Facebook took out full-page ads in major publications such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, targeting Apple’s privacy features in iOS14.
See also: Facebook says iOS 14 will hurt its business model, and expects network revenue to drop 50%
The social behemoth reported Q4 2020 earnings of $ 3.88 per share on Wednesday, beating the analyst’s estimate of $ 3.22. Daily active users increased by 11% year-on-year to 1.84 billion.
See also: Apple is the best expectation in the first quarter, as China’s strongest leads to revenue
Price action: Facebook shares closed 3.51% lower at $ 272.14 on Wednesday and fell nearly 1.9% in the after-hours to $ 267. On the same day, Apple shares fell nearly 3.2% in the after-hours to $ 137.43 after closing 0.77% lower at $ 142.06.
Photo courtesy: Anthony Quintano via Wikimedia
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