Illustration by Alex Castro

Just when I thought the relationship between Apple and Meta couldnโ€™t get more hostile, here we are.

On Monday, Apple quietly updated its App Store rules to require that iOS developers use in-app purchases โ€” and thereby give Apple 30 percent โ€” on โ€œsales of โ€˜boostsโ€™ for posts in a social media app.โ€ This primarily affects Facebook and Instagram, which let people pay to boost the reach of their posts. Itโ€™s the first time Apple has directly taxed advertising in iOS apps.

Meta, of course, isnโ€™t happy. Company spokesperson Tom Channick sent The Verge the following statement: โ€œApple continues to evolve its policies to grow their own business while undercutting others in the digital economy. Apple previously said it didnโ€™t take a share of developer advertising revenue, and now apparently changed its mind. We remain committed to offering small businesses simple ways to run ads and grow their businesses on our apps.โ€

โ€œApple continues to evolve its policies to grow their own business while undercutting others in the digital economyโ€

Paying to boost posts is a common feature across not just Metaโ€™s apps but other social apps like Twitter and TikTok. The difference for Facebook and Instagram is that they currently donโ€™t use Appleโ€™s in-app purchase system for boosting posts while Twitter, TikTok, and others do. Iโ€™m told that several years ago, Apple pressured Facebook to start routing these boosted post payments through the App Store, and Facebook resisted. (You can read more about that in this great story by Salvador Rodriguez at The Wall Street Journal.)

Still, Meta is accurate to say that this policy on paid boosts is, at least publicly, an about-face from Apple. Last May, during the Epic v. Apple antitrust trial, App Store boss Phil Schiller testified that the company had never taken a cut of iOS developer ad revenue. Going forward, that wonโ€™t be true anymore.

Based on my conversations with Meta employees, the new policy shouldnโ€™t have a material impact on the companyโ€™s revenue. But there is concern about the precedent set, and that Apple will eventually require the same rule for Metaโ€™s standalone ads manager app. Thanks to Appleโ€™s current logic, that app is currently exempt from having to use in-app purchases for boosts because the ads that are bought arenโ€™t displayed in the app itself. (I asked Apple if it plans to block updates to violating apps until they implement in-app purchases for boosted posts, and will update this story if I hear back.)

Metaโ€™s biggest advertisers wonโ€™t feel Appleโ€™s latest squeeze. It will be the individuals who buy one-off boosts in Instagram and Facebook that are affected the most since theyโ€™ll have to pay more for the same level of distribution, according to Eric Seufert, a respected ad industry analyst. โ€œBy inserting itself into the social media post boosting process and extracting a 30 percent fee, Apple is reducing the effectiveness of advertising spend for small businesses and influencers.โ€

Mark Zuckerberg says Appleโ€™s privacy push is โ€œnot as altruistic as they claimโ€ in an exclusive interview with The Vergeโ€™s @alexeheath. Watch more: https://t.co/YbHkoek9PP pic.twitter.com/t2kzZedIoi

โ€” The Verge (@verge) October 11, 2022

I donโ€™t have inside knowledge about the intent of Appleโ€™s policy (Please get in touch if you do!), but it is hard to see it as anything other than another blatant attack on Meta, which has already lost over $10 billion in ad revenue due to the iPhoneโ€™s ad tracking prompt. At the same time, Apple is growing its own ads business rapidly, sticking ads in more parts of its ecosystem.

Oh, and did I mention that Apple is about to compete with Meta in VR headsets?

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