Facebook’s parent company Meta will lose $10 billion this year due to a small but effective change Apple made last year. “The impact of iOS on our business overall in 2022 is around $10 billion,” the fourth-quarter earnings conference call hosted by the social media giant said. expressions were used.
In April 2021, Apple gave the user full authority to follow with the iOS 14.5 update. This permission prevented Facebook apps from tracking thousands of iOS users, and Meta CFO David Wehner said it took a huge toll on Facebook’s ad revenue.
Facebook will lose $10 billion because of Apple
Meta’s primary source of revenue is its advertising division, which relies on its huge database of user information from its business of some of the world’s largest social platforms (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp).
When Apple gave users the option to block these apps from tracking them in other apps, it eliminated the primary way Facebook collects ad data. The change came as part of Apple’s iOS 14.5 update, which launched in April 2021, and forced app publishers to add popups asking permission to track behavior for ad sales.
If users disable this option on their iOS device, Apple will prevent that app from collecting various data by advertisers.
According to initial reports, more than 95% of iPhone users who downloaded the update had ad tracking disabled. Meta estimates this will cause it to lose $10 billion in ad revenue next year.
“We can’t be certain about the drop in ad revenue, it’s just an estimate. We’re working hard to mitigate the impact, and we’re trying to make ads both more relevant and effective for users.”
Facebook also reported its first-ever drop in user numbers, and as a result, parent company Meta’s stock took a big hit: falling as much as 25% per share, from $323 to $245 per share, wiping $230 billion from market cap overnight.
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