Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has blamed Apple’s strict App Store policies for the decline of Facebook’s popular games and apps, such as the once-viral FarmVille. In a recent interview with tech writer Ben Thompson fromStratechery, Zuckerberg looked back at how Facebook’s app and game platform thrived on desktop computers in the late 2000s but struggled as people moved to smartphones, reportedMacrumors.
“The original Facebook platform was really built for the web, before mobile became big,” Zuckerberg said. “When people started using mobile more, Apple told us, ‘You can’t have apps inside your app.’ That hurt something that had grown to be an important part of our business.”
At its peak around the time Facebook went public in 2012, games and apps made up about 20 per cent of Facebook’s revenue. But as Apple prevented Facebook from running its own app platform inside the iPhone, this business couldn’t continue to grow.
According to the report, Facebook also played a role by limiting access to some tools and changing policies in the early 2010s, partly because of concerns about privacy and security. These changes affected developers who made apps and games for Facebook.
Still, he said Apple’s decisions created “deep bitterness” between the two companies. “Apple just said, ‘You can’t do things we think would be valuable,’ and that hurt,” Zuckerberg said. “It’s unfortunate.”
In recent years, Facebook has also been hurt by Apple’s App Tracking Transparency rules, which made it harder to show targeted ads on iPhones.
Zuckerberg believes mobile platforms should be more open, like desktop systems such as Windows or macOS, where developers have more freedom.
His comments come as Apple faces growing legal challenges over its App Store. Just this week, a U.S. judge ruled that Apple had broken a 2021 order by still stopping app developers from linking users to outside payment options. The judge ordered Apple to stop blocking those links and banned its 27% commission on such payments.
Apple is also facing an antitrust lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice, which claims the company keeps an illegal monopoly over the smartphone market.
With regulators pushing back, Apple’s “walled garden” might finally be opening up—a change Zuckerberg has long hoped to see.
