The Internet group Meta Platforms, which is based around the social network Facebook, shocked the stock market two weeks ago when it said when it presented its business results that it was preparing for a dramatic slowdown in its sales growth in the current quarter.

Among other things, he cited increased competition as a reason, for example from the smartphone app Tiktok.

Roland Lindner

Business correspondent in New York.

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In addition, he also specified for the first time the extent of the financial damage caused by Apple's stricter data rules.

In a new version of the operating system for its iPhones, the electronics group has created an obstacle to the collection of user data and thus to the advertising business of companies like Facebook.

In order to be able to track the online activities of users and evaluate them for the selection of customized ads, explicit consent is now required when opening apps.

According to market research data, many iPhone users reject this.

Meta predicted that will cost $10 billion in sales this year.

The stock price plummeted 26 percent in one day after the news and hasn't recovered since.

Google wants “more private advertising solutions”

Now, Google has made a push that parallels Apple's new approach and could hurt Meta's and other companies' advertising business even further.

The Internet company announced that it was working on "private advertising solutions" for Android phones that would limit the sharing of user data.

This is said to be part of a data protection initiative called "Sandbox", which already includes Google's Chrome Internet browser and is to be extended to Android in the future.

Google's step means that the collection and evaluation of advertising-relevant user data is now made more difficult by the manufacturers of both market-leading operating systems for smartphones.

Meta's share price lost another two percent on Wednesday.

In its announcement, however, Google clearly differentiated itself from the iPhone manufacturer without naming it.

The group spoke of “other platforms” that “clumsily” restricted existing advertising technologies.

He also pointed to a study looking at Apple's new data rules that questioned their effectiveness.

He underlined the fundamental importance of online advertising, which makes it possible to offer many services free of charge to users.

He also promised to keep the existing advertising systems for at least two years while working on new solutions.

Any changes would be announced well in advance.

The manufacturers of Android apps should also be able to get involved in the development of the new systems.

Online advertising is not bad per se

Google's softer approach is likely to have something to do with the fact that the group itself makes most of its revenue from online advertising.

He also draws on huge amounts of data, for example when selecting ads that are placed next to the results of his search engine.

Apple, on the other hand, does its business primarily with devices such as the iPhone and has often fundamentally criticized the evaluation of user data for advertising purposes.

On Wednesday, Google gave few specific details as to how the advertising system, which is aimed at more data protection, should look like in the end.

First of all, the group has published four “design proposals”.

This includes, for example, an approach that dispenses with a previously used mechanism for identifying individual Android devices, but still allows customized advertising to be shown.

In contrast to Meta, Google recently presented brilliant quarterly figures and, even with its various online services, doesn't seem to be too affected by Apple's stricter data rules.

Facebook's parent company senses a method in this and has suggested that Apple is deliberately disadvantaged by Google.

CFO David Wehner recently said that Google could benefit from the new restrictions in competition with Meta, since Internet browsers on Apple's devices, unlike apps, are not affected by the restrictions.

Google therefore has access to more advertising-related data with its search engine on the browser.

The iPhone maker also has an incentive to maintain this "disparity" between Google and Meta.

After all, he gets billions every year for