<story><title>Facebook reportedly prepping antitrust lawsuit against Apple on App Store rules</title><url>https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-apple-antitrust-lawsuit-app-store-2021-1</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>fossuser</author><text>The best analysis of this is from Stratechery: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;stratechery.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;privacy-labels-and-lookalike-audiences&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;stratechery.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;privacy-labels-and-lookalike-au...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;--&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Amazon, meanwhile, is increasingly where shopping searches start, particularly for Prime customers, and the company’s ad business is exploding. Needless to say, Amazon doesn’t need to request special permission for IDFAs or to share emails with 3rd parties to finely target its ads: everything is self-contained, and to the extent the company advertises on platforms like Google, it can still keep information about customer interests and conversions to itself. That means that in the long run, independent merchants who wish to actually find their customers will have no choice but to be an Amazon third-party merchant instead of setting up an independent shop on a platform like Shopify.&lt;p&gt;This decision, to be clear, will not be because Amazon was acting anticompetitively; the biggest driver — which, by the way, will also benefit Facebook’s on-platform commerce efforts — will be Apple, which, in the pursuit of privacy, is systematically destroying the ability of platform-driven small businesses to compete with the Internet giants.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;--&lt;p&gt;FB has a point here, but I&amp;#x27;m still hoping Apple wins - I&amp;#x27;d rather the tracking model not be viable.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mrtksn</author><text>So to break Amazon monopoly, the users must be tracked all day long, have complete profile of every living person and these people should not be asked first?&lt;p&gt;Why not break Amazon through regulatory power instead of total population tracking?&lt;p&gt;I also don&amp;#x27;t buy the small local business argument. If a local bakery wants to reach me, they can put a sign or do a promotion like giving a free cookie with the coffee on my way to work. It will also benefit the local community instead of a soulless corporation in SV.&lt;p&gt;When there&amp;#x27;s no Facebook, there&amp;#x27;s no FB for all of these bakeries. I don&amp;#x27;t die out of hunger because I failed to see targeted ad, instead I look at the maps or walk around and find the shops or ask a friend for a recommendation. The bakeries can excel in quality, have amazing prices etc. to reach me, like the old days.&lt;p&gt;An optimised version of FB&amp;#x27;s business is one where all the 3 bakeries in my neighbourhood give all their margin to FB in attempt to sell me cookies. Even better for FB if they optimize their cookies for lowest possible quality, just enough that the ads can drive me to buy one.</text></comment>
<story><title>Facebook reportedly prepping antitrust lawsuit against Apple on App Store rules</title><url>https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-apple-antitrust-lawsuit-app-store-2021-1</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>fossuser</author><text>The best analysis of this is from Stratechery: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;stratechery.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;privacy-labels-and-lookalike-audiences&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;stratechery.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;privacy-labels-and-lookalike-au...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;--&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Amazon, meanwhile, is increasingly where shopping searches start, particularly for Prime customers, and the company’s ad business is exploding. Needless to say, Amazon doesn’t need to request special permission for IDFAs or to share emails with 3rd parties to finely target its ads: everything is self-contained, and to the extent the company advertises on platforms like Google, it can still keep information about customer interests and conversions to itself. That means that in the long run, independent merchants who wish to actually find their customers will have no choice but to be an Amazon third-party merchant instead of setting up an independent shop on a platform like Shopify.&lt;p&gt;This decision, to be clear, will not be because Amazon was acting anticompetitively; the biggest driver — which, by the way, will also benefit Facebook’s on-platform commerce efforts — will be Apple, which, in the pursuit of privacy, is systematically destroying the ability of platform-driven small businesses to compete with the Internet giants.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;--&lt;p&gt;FB has a point here, but I&amp;#x27;m still hoping Apple wins - I&amp;#x27;d rather the tracking model not be viable.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>walrus01</author><text>&amp;gt; FB has a point here, but I&amp;#x27;m still hoping Apple wins - I&amp;#x27;d rather than tracking model not be viable.&lt;p&gt;I think it&amp;#x27;s possible for two things to be true simultaneously:&lt;p&gt;a) it&amp;#x27;s bad and wrong for apple to demand 30%, or whatever it is, as a cut of any payment made inside an app distributed through their app store&lt;p&gt;b) apple blocking tracking and advertising networks at the operating system level (API calls between the app running on a phone or tablet, and the underlying OS) is a net benefit for the consumer end user. obviously apple has a very different perspective on this since they are not facebook, or google, and not dependent upon advertising revenue.</text></comment>