Why Meta's Dan Neary is bullish on competing with TikTok and tackling Apple's ATT

Meta is confident about the future of its apps in the Asia Pacific region despite increasing competition, according to Dan Neary, vice president for APAC at the tech giant. 

"People have more options than ever before, and I think this kind of competition is good for the ecosystem," Neary said in a podcast interview with Campaign Asia-Pacific. "It drives innovation and better services for people." 

Neary noted that Meta has successfully adapted to people's evolving preferences since its formation 18 years ago, whether it was the shift to mobile or the change to stories.  

He added that the company had spent over a decade building the most powerful discovery engine, generating customer connections, business demand, and brand interest. 

"People aren't coming on to our apps for any one thing. They're coming for all of it," Neary said. 

"So, while the competitive landscape humbles us, I'm confident our apps will continue to be the best places for people and communities to connect – and for advertisers to reach people where they get measurable outcomes long into the future." 

Regarding the economic climate, Neary said every downturn is unique, but businesses that leverage technology effectively are most likely to gain an advantage. "We help drive efficient growth," he said. 

On privacy and the impact of Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT), Neary said it is the reality of the online advertising environment they operate in now.  

Meta is tackling this issue by working on tools that mitigate the impact of those changes and investing in privacy-enhancing technologies that will enable them to deliver better performance and privacy-safe ads to advertisers. 

"We believe that the two can live side by side. We've substantially improved how our measurement and delivery systems handle situations in which we have limited access to granular data," Neary explained. 

"This means we see ad performance improvements while still respecting privacy. We're also investing in products that grow onsite conversions, like Lead ads where you can now click to open a messaging conversation." 

Click the play button below to hear the full interview, or catch it on Spotify, Apple, Sitcher, TuneIn and Google Podcasts: