After scrutinizing Vision Pro, Zuckerberg takes another shot at the "Apple Tax" with Meta Platforms

Just now, I had a heated discussion about Apple's popular mixed reality headset, Vision Pro. Now, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, leading this tech giant, has taken another shot at Apple, this time targeting the "Apple tax" of 30% on the App Store.

On Thursday, February 15th, Meta Platforms issued a statement in response to Apple's updated App Store guidelines for 2022. Starting this month, if businesses purchase Meta Platforms' enhanced promotion feature, Boosted Post, on the Meta Platforms and Instagram apps, they will be required to pay an additional service fee equivalent to 30% of their pre-tax advertising revenue. This fee is not collected by Meta Platforms, but rather by Apple, the operator of the App Store.

At the same time, Meta Platforms emphasized that in order to support millions of small businesses, advertisers who want to advertise on Meta Platforms and Instagram can now directly access the official websites of these two social media platforms through mobile devices or desktop computers. They can promote their content using Boosted Post without having to pay the aforementioned 30% service fee to Apple, and they can also enjoy all the features available in iOS apps. Meta Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms has explained the reason for launching the above "new move" as follows: "We either have to comply with Apple's guidelines or remove the Boosted Posts feature from our app. We don't want to disable the Boosted Posts feature because it would reduce the ability for it to be discovered by users, potentially depriving small businesses of a valuable way to promote their businesses."

Meta Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms has introduced that this new charge from Apple will first be implemented in the US market and will be rolled out in other countries later this year. If advertisers still want to use the Boosted Posts feature on Meta Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms and Instagram apps, they will need to make a prepayment by depositing funds into their accounts before they can use this feature in the app. Meta Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms will also charge an additional 30% fee to cover the transaction costs of pre-stored funds in iOS by Apple. If advertisers choose to use desktop or preferred mobile web browsers, they can add prepaid funds in the payment settings and use these prepaid funds to enable Boosted Posts without any additional charges.

Some media outlets have commented that Meta Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms' statement is equivalent to publicly releasing guidelines, encouraging advertising companies to adopt Meta Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms Platforms' new workaround to avoid paying Apple's 30% service fee.

Apple subsequently stated in a statement that Apple has always required in-app purchases for digital goods and services within apps. Boosted Posts allow individuals or organizations to expand the reach of their posts or profiles through payment, which is a digital service and therefore naturally requires in-app purchases. This has always been the case, and there are many successful examples of apps doing this. However, Apple pointed out that customers of Meta Platforms can still use an independent app called Meta Platforms Ads Manager to pay for their advertising activities without paying commissions to Apple, as this app falls under the exempted fee category for advertising activity management apps.

Interestingly, just before Meta Platforms announced the methods to avoid fees for Meta Platforms and Instagram apps, CEO Mark Zuckerberg of Meta Platforms publicly shared his evaluation experience of Vision Pro.

According to Zuckerberg, the virtual reality headset Quest 3 from Meta Platforms is "more comfortable," with a more immersive content library, wider field of view, more accurate hand tracking, and brighter screen. On the other hand, Vision Pro has a higher screen resolution and "very good" eye tracking. In short, Quest 3 offers "better value for money" and is "undoubtedly" a "better product."