Back in October 2018, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg during an earnings call made quite a startling remark but somehow it went under the radar. Speaking about Facebook’s biggest competition, Zuckerberg said, “Apple’s iMessage is our biggest competition by far.” Elaborating on the point, Zuckerberg further said, “In important countries like the U.S. where the iPhone is strong, Apple bundles iMessage as a default texting app and it’s still ahead.”
Perhaps that’s why Zuckerberg’s really lengthy post – he made it last week – where he talks about messaging being the future of Facebook becomes even more pertinent. Zuckerberg wrote at length about how he wants people to message using all of Facebook’s platforms – WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger – and that’s why there is a talk of unifying all three by 2020.

As per a report by Slate, if and when that does happen, it will put Facebook directly in battle with Apple. When it comes to messaging it won’t be wrong to say that iMessage is extremely popular between those who use iPhones. Despite the slowdown of iPhone sales, there are far too many people – at least in the US and a few other countries – who use Apple devices. iMessage – for the uninitiated – works across the iPhone, iPad and the MacBook.

So when Facebook and Zuckerberg talk about messaging being the future, one of their biggest rival will be Apple and the iPhone. For instance, in China, WeChat continues to dominate all things-related to social media and since Facebook is banned in the country, it’s the iPhone that will be its biggest threat.

While it will be unfair to say that Apple will be the only competition for Facebook as anything and everything that has a messaging service will actually be its rival. Be it Google, Snapchat or even Twitter, they all will be in direct competition to what Facebook throws in the messaging space.

Both Tim Cook – Apple CEO – and Zuckerberg don’t really share the best of relationships. Cook has been extremely vocal – directly and indirectly – in his criticism of the disregard Facebook has shown when it comes to users’ privacy, something Apple takes a lot of pride in. Zuckerberg, meanwhile, indirectly criticised Apple for having data centres in countries like China where freedom of expression is curtailed. Looks like with Facebook’s intentions of betting big on messaging, we will perhaps see the heralding of a new tech rivalry.

Source: gadgetsnow.com