Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he is confident the company “will be able to manage through” Apple’s upcoming planned privacy update to iOS 14, which will make it easier for iPhone and iPad users to block companies from tracking their activity to target ads.
“We’ll be in a good position,” Zuckerberg said Thursday afternoon in Josh Constine’s PressClub Clubhouse room.
Apple has said that the change will roll out early this spring.
Zuckerberg explained that the change could benefit Facebook if more businesses decide to sell goods directly through Facebook and Instagram.
“It’s possible that we may even be in a stronger position if Apple’s changes encourage more businesses to conduct more commerce on our platforms by making it harder for them to use their data in order to find the customers that would want to use their products outside of our platforms,” Zuckerberg said.
Zuckerberg’s comments are the most optimistic statements Facebook has delivered about how the looming Apple changes may impact the company’s advertising business.
Facebook has prepared for the looming Apple changes by introducing more commerce products.
Most notably, the social media company in 2020 introduced Facebook Shops and Instagram Shops. These features make it possible for brands to list their product catalogs directly on Facebook’s most popular apps, and sell goods directly on Facebook and Instagram.
Zuckerberg on Thursday said that already Facebook has 1 million active shops on its services and 250 million people using shops actively.
“Compared to the early conversations we had about how people would use this across Facebook and Instagram and our product, I think this is something that’s well on track to be something that’s going to be increasingly important to people,” Zuckerberg said.
