Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before the House Financial Services Committee at the Rayburn House Office Building in Capitol Hill on October 23, 2019 in Washington, DC. Zuckerberg testified about Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency proposal, how his company will handle false and misleading information from political leaders during the 2020 campaign and how it will handle its users’ data and privacy.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Thursday that he is confident that the social media company “will be able to manage through Apple’s planned” privacy update for iOS 14, which will make it easier for users iPhone and iPad block companies from tracking their activities to target Advertisements.
“We will be in a good position,” said Zuckerberg in a room at the Clubhouse on Thursday afternoon.
Apple’s upcoming privacy changes will inform users about tracking device IDs and ask if they want to allow it. Tracking is based on a unique device identifier on each iPhone and iPad called IDFA. Companies selling mobile ads use this ID to help target ads and estimate their effectiveness.
Apple said the move will take place earlier this spring.
Zuckerberg explained that the move could benefit Facebook if more companies decide to sell products directly through Facebook and Instagram.
“It is possible that we may be in a stronger position if Apple’s changes encourage more companies to do more trade on our platforms, making it more difficult for them to use their data to find customers who would like to use their products outside of our platforms” , said Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg’s comments are the most optimistic statements Facebook has made about how Apple’s impending changes could impact the company’s advertising business.
In July 2020, Facebook CFO David Wehner said that changes to Apple’s iOS 14 could impair the social media company’s ability to target ads to users, and in August 2020, the company said the changes could lead to a drop of more than 50% in its Advertising Audience Network, which represents less than 10% of the company’s net revenue. The company told investors during its fourth-quarter earnings in January that the impact of Apple’s changes could begin to affect Facebook’s business at the end of the first quarter.
Facebook has prepared for Apple’s impending changes by introducing more commercial products.
Most notably, the social media company in 2020 launched Facebook stores and Instagram stores. These features allow brands to list their product catalogs directly on Facebook’s most popular apps and sell products directly on Facebook and Instagram.
Zuckerberg said on Thursday that Facebook already has 1 million stores active on its services and 250 million people actively using the stores.
“Compared to the first conversations we had about how people would use this on Facebook, Instagram and our product, I think this is something that is on track to be increasingly important to people,” said Zuckerberg.