Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) — the metaverse company previously known as Facebook Inc. — recently lost daily users for the first time in its 18-year history.
Now the company is rethinking its expansion plans and partly blaming it on Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) new pro-privacy policies.
What Happened: Meta internal memos meant for employees were reported by Business Insider on Thursday and show that the firm is enforcing a hiring freeze and reducing hiring targets.
The company said it is reprioritizing in a move that will impact "almost every team across the company."
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The decision follows the company reporting "slower revenue growth than anticipated," partly "due to a number of factors including the loss of signal from iOS changes," according to Meta chief financial officer David Vehner.
He also wrote that the company is in the process of "incorporating AI into our ads system to overcome signal loss from iOS changes."
Privacy And Tech: The report follows Apple enacting the App Tracking Transparency Framework in 2020, which allows iOS device users to choose whether they wish to be tracked or not across apps and websites owned by other companies.
Meta starkly opposed giving mobile users the opportunity to choose whether they should be tracked, by negating to apps the access to the Identifier for Advertisers — making it harder to target personalized ads to that user.
When Apple first rolled out the feature, Meta acquired a full-page ad in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post arguing the change is bad for small businesses and that it limits "how personalized ads can be used does impact larger companies like us."
Meta also wrote that Apple will "limit businesses' ability to run personalized ads and reach their customers effectively."
The report follows Apple leaving the State Privacy and Security Coalition (SPSC) back in early April, accusing the group of lobbying for weak privacy laws that benefit the industry instead of the users. SPSC members include AT&T (NYSE:T), Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) Google owner Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and other major players in the technology and media industries — which means that Apple is now clearly at odds with those companies.
