Yes. Apple gets paid billions by Google - obviously Apple is not going to hurt Google - instead they are going on a privacy crusade against companies whose business they can hurt without any financial blowback.

I believe a big chunk (the majority?) of this comes from a fairly simple deal to set Google as the default search engine in Safari. Facebook doesn't have something similar to leverage, that I can think of at least.

https://9to5mac.com/2021/08/25/analysts-google-to-pay-apple-...

The whole Meta thing is a distraction, nothing more. For better and worse there is nothing to be gained by the name change.

The ad business is what matters to Facebook, so i think you're right.

The ad business is what matters right now. Meta is a startup pitch, a trillion dollar company pivoting from 2d screens to 3d, and the social network ad business is the runway to get there. It's absolutely nuts, but I wouldn't call it a distraction. I'm a bit shocked at how many people are handwaving it away as a distraction, really.

> The ad business is what matters to Facebook

Their ad business is ran on other people's platforms, and they're beholden to their rules, like Apples.

"Metaverse" - whatever that's supposed to mean - is an attempt at creating a new platform that they control, where they don't have to follow Apple's rules.

The problem with it is that MS missed the mobile revolution that made people more free, but AR glasses need much more technical advancements for people to get rid of the mobile phone.

"The whole Meta thing is..." the beginning of the end of Facebook. While it won't go down the same way, I see this as MySpace 2021.