The Massive Opportunity in the AAPL vs. FB Battle

Andy Snyder|February 7, 2022

One of these things is not like the others…

Apple popped 5% after its earnings report.

Google parent company Alphabet surged 10% after it blew away expectations.

Amazon jumped by 12% immediately after its profit figures hit the press.

Snap, the company behind social media big-hitter Snapchat, jumped as much as 62% last Friday.

And Meta Platforms (which owns and operates Facebook), oh my, it plunged by more than 25%.

The standout is clear. Poor, poor Zuckerberg.

We were invited to a webinar a few weeks ago. You may remember us talking about it. When asked where folks should put their money in 2022, our answer was clear. Despite the silly “value vs. growth” debate on Wall Street right now… blue chip tech is where the money lies.

We were proven right last week.

But what in the world happened to Meta Platforms?

Simple… Apple CEO Tim Cook happened. He finally got his payback.

Zuck’s Folly

Our mantra to fellow business owners has long been, “Don’t build your business on Facebook.” Lots of companies and lots of brands have used Facebook as the main – if not only – platform for their sales.

It’s dangerous. With one change of the rules, Facebook can wipe you out.

It’s happened… a lot.

It turns out that ol’ Zuckerberg failed to take our advice. And when he got into a public fight with the leadership at Apple… they came after him.

It’s no secret that Apple changed its privacy rules last year. Through its new “App Tracking Transparency” mandate, the company forces app-makers to get permission from users before tracking their data as they wander all over the online world.

For most companies, it’s a sharp thorn in their side. It limits their marketing prowess.

For Facebook, which lives and breathes on the data it collects with its Apple-distributed app… it’s a stock buster. As we saw on Thursday… it’s a $252 billion stock buster, to be exact.

The Big Fight

Apple’s “Ask App Not to Track” feature is a direct slap in the face to Zuckerberg.

In April of last year, The New York Times reported that Cook and the Facebook CEO were “on very bad terms.”

Tech historians will tell you the rift started in 2014. That’s when Cook warned about Facebook’s data-collecting schemes and begged folks to “follow the money” to see whether they should be worried about Facebook.

The fight got nastier in 2017. That’s when two things happened.

First, in the less-reported story, a bunch of Facebook cronies wrote a series of anonymous papers criticizing Cook and his leadership… and fabricating a tale that he planned to run for president.

It wasn’t well received by the computer company.

The bigger story, breaking that same year, was the infamous Cambridge Analytica political scandal, in which Facebook was busted for its abusive relationship with its users’ data.

We declared Facebook a data company with a social media cover.

Apple – whether it truly believes it or not – has taken a very strong stance against exploiting users’ data. It says privacy is a “fundamental human right.”

When asked about the Cambridge scandal, Cook took a shot at Zuckerberg, saying, “I wouldn’t be in this situation.”

Ouch.

Then, last year – proving just how big the feud had gotten – the dueling duo took their fight to Capitol Hill… where folks on both sides of the gaping, fire-breathing aisle want to pull apart their companies over antitrust concerns.

Instead of fighting for their industry, Cook and Zuckerberg fought each other. Facebook cried because Apple controls so much of its business. Apple griped about data surveillance.

Meanwhile, congressional aides and campaign managers took notes on how to take advantage of it all.

Cook has used everything he has to strike back at Zuckerberg. And he finally got in a big blow with Apple’s latest software release. Its new privacy settings have slammed Facebook’s earnings potential.

We saw as much in the company’s earnings update last week.

Not only did daily active users fall… but with far less data on them, those users are also worth a whole lot less.

Oh sure, the common shareholder got slammed. Cook would call that collateral damage and openly invite folks to buy Apple shares to make up for the loss.

But it’s the Facebook ringleader who Cook is slyly winking at these days. Zuckerberg lost $30 billion… all because his business relies on another.

And now the action starts…

Change of Plans

These boys won’t just drop to a knee and let the refs break up the fight. Oh no. The fiscal fisticuffs are just getting started.

Ol’ Zuck knew this was coming. It’s why he changed the name of his business just weeks before this bad news hit.

Forget social data… Facebook now wants to dominate the metaverse.

Cook is jumping in too. He just announced Apple is investing in virtual reality in a big way.

We’ll spare you the numbers and our commentary on them… and simply share a spicy headline from Inc. magazine.

This will be good…

Apple just scored a big victory. It won a decisive battle. But Zuckerberg is loading his digital cannon and preparing to fire back.

Smart investors are paying attention. The metaverse is filling up with profit opportunities.

And you can learn about our No. 1 choice right here.