Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before the House Financial Services Committee in the Rayburn House office building on Capitol Hill on October 23, 2019 in Washington, DC. Zuckerberg testified about Facebook’s proposed Libra for Libra, how his company will handle false and misleading information by political leaders during the 2020 campaign, and how it handles the users and data of its users.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Thursday he was confident the social media company would “get it right” through Apple’s upcoming planned privacy update on iOS 14, which will make it easier for iPhone and iPad users to prevent companies from tracking their activity ads.
“We’ll be fine,” Zuckerberg said in a clubhouse room Thursday afternoon.
Apple’s upcoming privacy changes will inform users about tracking device IDs and ask them if they want to allow it. The detection is based on a unique device identifier on each iPhone and iPad called IDFA. Companies selling mobile ads use this ID to target ads and estimate their effectiveness.
Apple said the change will begin in early spring.
Zuckerberg explained that the change could benefit Facebook if more businesses decide to sell goods directly via Facebook and Instagram.
“It’s possible that we’ll even be in a stronger position if Apple’s changes encourage more businesses to trade more on our platforms by making it harder to use their data to find the customers who want their products out of the country. use our platforms, ”said Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg’s comments are the most optimistic statement Facebook has made about how the looming Apple changes could affect the company’s advertising business.
In July 2020, Facebook chief financial officer David Wehner said Apple’s iOS 14 changes could hurt the social media company’s ability to target users, and in August 2020, the company said the changes can lead to a drop of more than 50% in his hearing network. advertising business, which represents less than 10% of the company’s net income. During its fourth quarter in January, the company told investors that the impact of Apple’s changes late in the first quarter could begin to affect Facebook’s business.
Facebook has prepared for the looming Apple changes by launching more commercial products.
Most importantly, the social media venture launched Facebook Shops and Instagram Shops in 2020. These features allow brands to list their product catalogs directly on Facebook’s most popular apps and sell goods directly on Facebook and Instagram.
Zuckerberg said Thursday that Facebook already has 1 million active stores on its services and 250 million people who actively use stores.
“Compared to the early conversations we had about how people would use it on Facebook and Instagram and our product, I think it’s something that is well on its way to becoming something that is going to become more and more important to people,” he said. Zuckerberg said.