Sheila Dang & Nivedita Balu

(Reuters). – The Future of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:). According to Monday’s financial results, social media giant Facebook is likely to suffer more from Apple Inc’s privacy changes. Investors fear that the company will be worse off than other big players in tech. Snap Inc (NYSE:) Last week, revenue targets were missed by the company.

Apple privacy updates that prevent advertisers tracking iPhone users has been rolling out since April. It is causing investors to be on edge in the digital ad industry, as they fear that less access to their data will threaten the estimated $100 billion market for mobile advertising.

Snap reported Thursday that Apple’s changes had made it more difficult to determine whether ads lead to sales or website visits. A measurement tool Apple provided did not work as intended.

Snap lost 25% of its shares, which dragged down Facebook’s share. Twitter Inc (NYSE:) Alphabet (NASDAQ 🙂 Inc. All three earn revenues by selling digital advertisements.

Ygal Aronian, Wedbush Securities’ managing director for internet equity research, stated in a research paper after Snap’s results that “no more denying” Apple’s privacy push.

Evercore ISI analysts stated in a research paper that Facebook, which is second in digital ad platforms worldwide after Google, will see the greatest hits compared to its peers.

Snap is the main source of Facebook’s advertising business. Direct response advertising refers to both ad buyers and sellers who make use of data such as the devices and search terms of consumers to create ads that target interested customers with the goal of quickly driving sales and website visits.

Facebook stated last month that Apple’s changes to its advertising system on iOS devices had caused it not to report the correct results. The company also warned brands that these changes made it harder for them to advertise on Facebook.

Social media networks have been fierce critics of Apple’s latest updates. They argue that they will hurt small businesses who rely on personal advertising to grow sales.

Twitter on the other hand will likely be left out of the third quarter report, due to its primary use for brand advertising. Audrey Schomer (an analyst senior at research firm eMarketer) said.

Twitter stated that brand advertising accounts for 85% of its ads business in July. This is a marketing strategy used by companies to increase awareness about a company and its values. These ads can be targeted less to specific users and are therefore not dependent on the data of iPhones or other devices.

Alphabet’s Google, which is the biggest digital advertising company in the world, has been shielded by privacy laws. This is because a lot of the usage it makes comes via desktops. Additionally, Google promoted results are not affected by iPhone data. Alphabet’s third quarter results will be released on Tuesday.