As soon as he commented on Apple's popular hybrid headset Vision Pro, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg led the tech giant to fire another shot at Apple, this time targeting the App Store's 30% "Apple tax".
On Thursday, February 15, Eastern time, Meta issued a statement, saying that according to Apple's 2022 updated App Store guidelines, starting this month, if a company buys Meta's enhanced promotion function on the Facebook and Instagram apps of Apple's iOS operating system, it will need to pay an additional service fee equivalent to 30% of the pre-tax advertising revenue, which is not charged by Meta, and is all charged by the app Store is levied by Apple Operator.
At the same time, Meta pointed out that in order to support millions of small businesses, advertisers who want to advertise on Facebook and Instagram can now go directly to the official websites of the two Meta social networks through the browser of their mobile devices or desktop computers, and promote their content with boosted posts there, so that they do not have to pay Apple's 30% service fee and can use all the features as in the iOS app.
Meta's statement explains the "new move" this way: "We either have to follow Apple's guidelines, or we have to delete boosted posts from our app." We don't want to remove the ability to boost a post because it would reduce the ability of the feature to be discovered, potentially depriving small businesses of a valuable way to promote their business, and thus harming small businesses. ”
According to Meta, Apple's new fees will be implemented in the U.S. market first, and will be implemented in other countries and regions later this year. If advertisers still want to use boosted posts on Facebook and Instagram apps, they will need to pay upfront to have the funds prepaid into their accounts and pay first to use the feature in the app. Meta will also charge an additional 30% fee to cover transaction fees for Apple's pre-deposited funds in iOS. If an advertiser chooses to add prepaid funds to their payment settings using desktop or their preferred mobile web browser, they will not be charged anything when they use those prepayments to enable boosted posts.
Some ** commented that Meta's announcement is tantamount to a public release of guidelines, encouraging advertising companies to adopt Meta's new workaround to avoid paying Apple a 30% service fee.
Apple has since said in a statement that it has been requiring in-app purchases of digital goods and services to be made within the app. Boosting allows individuals or organizations to expand the reach of a post or profile by paying for it, and it's a digital service, so of course in-app purchases are required. This has always been the case, and there are many successful examples of apps doing just that.
However, Apple noted that Meta customers can still pay for their campaigns through a standalone app called Meta Ads Manager without paying a commission to Apple, as the app is exempt from the campaign management app.
Coincidentally, before Meta announced how to circumvent Facebook and Instagram app fees, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly shared his experience with Vision Pro earlier this week.
Zuckerberg believes that Meta's virtual reality headset Quest 3 is "more comfortable", with a deeper library of immersive content, a wider field of view, more accurate hand tracking, and a brighter screen, while the Vision Pro screen resolution is higher and its eye tracking is also "very good." In conclusion, the Quest 3 is "better value for money" and "undoubtedly" a "better product".