Meta's Zuckerberg Piles Onto The Criticism Over Apple's App Store Policy Shenanigans

Mark Zuckerberg is joining a legion of CEOs who are less-than enthused about the opening up of iOS to third-party app stores. Zuckerberg gave his opinion on Apple’s new policies, as they relate to Meta, while speaking to shareholders during an earnings call. Zuckerberg said that “I don’t think that the Apple thing is going to have any difference for us. Because I think that the way they have implemented it, I would be very surprised if any developer chose to go into the alternative app stores that they have.”

The changes Apple is making is in response to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act. However, the way the company is choosing to comply with the EU’s rules isn’t going to improve the situation for app developers. Zuckerberg highlights this, saying “they’ve made it so onerous, and I think so at odds with the intent of what the EU regulation was, that I think it’s just going to be very difficult for anyone, including ourselves, to really seriously entertain what they’re doing there.”


The biggest issue for developers is that while iOS is now more open it has come at the cost of a new fee structure that ensures that Apple gets a cut from anything happening on its platform. Even if app downloads are happening outside of its official app store. The most oppressive of this new fee structure is that developers will need to pay a €0.50 fee once an app passes 1 million installs, and Apple counts updates as an install to boot. This can get cost prohibitive very quickly, especially for smaller companies.

Now that Apple has finally revealed this new fee structure it will be up to EU to decide if this is good enough, or if it’s running afoul of the spirit of the regulation.