Facebook and Apple’s CEOs are exchanging barbs, but they’re clearly dependent on each other
While Tim Cook says that Apple ‘elected’ not to make ‘a tonne’ of money by including customer data part of its product, Mark Zuckerberg warned consumers not to ‘let the companies that work hard to charge you more convince you that they actually care more about you’
By Anita Balakrishnan
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hit back at Apple in a podcast — implying that Apple charges exorbitant prices for its products — just days after CEO Tim Cook assailed the social network’s monetising of its users’ data.
But while both executives make compelling criticisms about the other company’s business models (Facebook’s privacy snafus and Apple’s high prices ), they fail to acknowledge a crucial detail: Each has benefited from the other’s success.
In fact, the transition to mobile platforms was critical to Facebook’s financial success, and Apple’s App Store — alongside Google and Amazon — became one of the primary platforms through which Facebook attracts users. And free apps like Facebook can make Apple’s platform more attractive and competitive for users.