The latest conversation with the Meta CEO reveals decades-long secrets between the social media giant and Apple.

At the first LlaamaCon conference hosted by Meta this week, Mark Zuckerberg had an exclusive interview with tech expert Ben Thompson from Stratechery. Not shying, the Facebook boss has frankly shared about the not very good relationship between Meta and Apple, which he believes is the source of “deep bitterness” in the technology world.

When asked about how many of Facebook’s developer platforms had previously been “killed” or severely restricted, Zuckerberg was quick to reach out to Apple. He said the shift in users from the desktop web to mobile devices was Apple’s tightening of power, reasoning: “You can’t build a platform inside of ours, and you’re not allowed to create apps that use your technology in a way that we don’t control.” According to Zuckerberg, at the time of Facebook’s IPO in 2012, games and apps accounted for 20% of the company’s revenue, but Apple’s policy stifled that entire ecosystem.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at LlamaCon 2025. Photo: Euronews

He continued: “I think Apple’s policy has created a very deep bitterness – not only from that, but many other things. They simply say, ‘You must not do things that we think are inappropriate,’ when we believe those are things of real value. That has contributed significantly to the tension between the two sides.”

Although Apple and Meta do not “play closely” with each other, they are still dependent on each other on some fronts. However, Apple’s continuous tightening of regulations on developers – which has not yet been declared unfair competition – has forced Meta to change its strategy several times to survive and grow. According to the content of the interview, it is these changes that have helped Meta achieve many significant successes in the long term.

The simmering confrontation between the two tech giants seems to be going on, not in court, but in every line of code, every policy update, and even interviews like this.