By Danielle Kaye

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Uh oh. Big Tech was split in half on Wednesday. It is now divided into companies with great data and those without. This happened after Meta Platforms Inc, the owner of Facebook (NASDAQ) posted terrible quarterly results. They blamed privacy protections at Apple (NASDAQ) for making it harder for advertisers.

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:) Inc had posted a remarkable quarter owing to record sales of targeted advertising using its Google search data.

Loup Ventures investment manager Gene Munster said, “It is two-tiered.” Munster called Apple’s device and Google search engine the foundations for the internet. He said that Facebook continues to feel the impact of Apple’s privacy modifications, and that Facebook is seeing more of that effect than he had expected.

After-hours trading on Wednesday saw Meta’s forecast and revenue misses send the shares of the social media company down 20%. This was despite a positive sector outlook on Alphabet and Apple’s results.

Meta shares plunged $200 billion after hours and its market value was wiped out by peers Twitter Inc (NYSE:), Snap Inc (NYSE:) And Pinterest (NYSE:) Inc lost $15 billion.

Scott Kessler, Third Bridge said that some people may feel a false sense security after Alphabet/Google’s strong and healthy Q4 results. Apple’s mid-year change to its operations system would have a significant impact on the world of mobile advertising by 2022, according to Third Bridge.

Apple allows users to disable some tracking on their internet usage, making it difficult for brands to use Instagram or Facebook to track and measure them. On a conference call, David Wehner, Meta’s Chief Financial Officer, stated that Apple privacy policies could have a “significant impact” on 2022.

Meta stated that macroeconomic factors like inflation and supply chain disruptions contributed to earnings misses, which can have wide-ranging effects. However, investors and analysts focused on the social media as their means of punishing Meta.

Analyst Ryan Reith from IDC said that “it really depends on which company in tech right now.” He was referring to the high level of competition between services, hardware, and advertising. There will continue volatility in the tech sector if there is strong growth in just a few sectors.

Meta CFO Wehner stated that Apple’s relationship to Google was also a problem for Facebook. The incentive to maintain this policy discordance is clear, given that Apple still takes billions per year in Google Search Ads.

Meta has been investing heavily in metaverse. This combines the real and virtual worlds for play and work. The tech titan pointed out that competition was a problem in the quarter.

Meta’s results were announced after the release of two weeks worth positive outlooks by Alphabet (NASDAQ;), Apple (NASDAQ:), Microsoft (NASDAQ:) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:) Inc. These optimistic outlooks instilled confidence among investors in future sector growth prospects.

“I don’t think it turns around the current relief rally we are seeing in the tech space,” said analyst Robert Pavlik of Dakota Wealth Management, after Meta’s results. But there could be an impact on some advertising-supported companies, he said.