Zuckerberg vs. Cook: CEOs continue their subtle feud over business philosophies
Facebook issues a statement after NYT exposé
By Cal Jeffrey,
In context: It is no secret that Apple CEO Tim Cook and Facebook CEO
Mark Zuckerberg are not friends. They have traded backhanded insults and
indirect jabs for years. Part of the conflict comes from the differing
philosophies. Namely: how to make money off a free product versus a sold
product.
While Tim Cook's barbs are never pointed directly at Mark Zuckerberg,
they always seem to trigger the Facebook founder into a sometimes
irrational response.
In an interview back in April, Cook told MSNBC, “We’re not going to
traffic in your personal life. Privacy to us is a human right. It’s a
civil liberty.”
The remark was in reference to the possible regulation of companies that
use and sell the personal data and browsing habits of their users. The
wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal was still fresh, and the comment
reportedly angered Zuckerberg.
On Wednesday, The New York Times published a scathing exposé covering
Facebook's involvement in everything from the Russia investigation to
sex trafficking legislation. The article noted that according to a
source, “Mr. Cook’s criticisms [on MSNBC] infuriated Mr. Zuckerberg, who
later ordered his management team to use only Android phones — arguing
that the operating system had far more users than Apple’s.”
“When an online service is free, you're not the customer. You're the product.”
Thursday morning Facebook confirmed Zuck’s feelings on the matter and
tried to clarify his response. The lengthy blog post seemed to be an
attempt at a PR reversal calling the NYT piece "inaccurate," but one
point addressed Cook’s criticism directly.
“Tim Cook has consistently criticized our business model, and Mark
has been equally clear he disagrees. So there's been no need to employ
anyone else to do this for us. And we've long encouraged our employees
and executives to use Android because it is the most popular operating
system in the world.”
This latest instance is not the only time Cook has made comments that got under Zuckerberg’s skin.
In 2014, Tim Cook told Charlie Rose in an interview, “When an online
service is free, you're not the customer. You're the product.”
He repeated that refrain in September in a statement on Apple’s privacy
policy. Taken in context, Cook probably had Google in mind, but Zuck did
not allow that to stop him from getting annoyed about it.
“A frustration I have is that a lot of people increasingly seem to
equate an advertising business model with somehow being out of alignment
with your customers,” Zuck told Time. “I think it's the most ridiculous
concept. What, you think because you're paying Apple that you're
somehow in alignment with them? If you were in alignment with them, then
they'd make their products a lot cheaper!”
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