Think of this visually for a moment. The (content) fortress is growing mightier by the month; its walls higher and its moats wider. The taxes on the kingdoms surrounding the fortress are rising as well. That fortress is Apple, and the kingdoms surrounding it are Meta, Twitter, Snapchat and all else with the exception of, perhaps, TikTok and a few of the growing retail media networks. When I first explained this, I was right about one point and wrong about the other:
This one hit close to home. My younger brother received his confirmation email at 9:02 AM from Meta’s Leadership Team. The role is everything he’d ever hoped for and more. And like many Americans, his income is the basis of his survival, especially during a time that inflation stands at a 40 year high. This moment in time is difficult for the many of us. It’s especially so as the fundamentals of our economy continue to fail beneath us: rampant inflation, high mortgage rates, expensive housing, crypto’s crash, and to the crumbling of FAANG’s sure-footedness.
Trojan horse no more. Apple is on the verge of another win in its crackdown on third-party data: Meta is being sued for its data collection practices and a lot is on the line.
