In his FTC trial, Mark Zuckerberg said he saw TikTok as a threat from the start and bought Instagram and WhatsApp because he feared they would become competitors.
On April 16, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared in an antitrust hearing with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in Washington. For seven hours, Zuckerberg answered government lawyers, mostly about how Facebook (now Meta) tried to keep up with the mobile boom with a series of technology acquisitions, including the acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp more than 10 years ago, as well as confronting TikTok by launching the short-form video feature Reels in 2020.
If the FTC wins, Meta may have to separate Instagram and WhatsApp from its business ecosystem, according to Bloomberg. But more importantly, it will also raise questions about how the US government evaluates and approves deals.
Viewing TikTok as an 'extremely urgent' threat
"We saw our growth slow down significantly as TikTok became more popular," Zuckerberg said at the hearing. "This is a very urgent issue, a top priority for the company for many years."
ByteDance introduced its short video network Douyin in China in September 2016, focusing on sharing videos under 60 seconds, later increasing to 10 minutes. By August 2018, a version for global users was launched, named TikTok.
According to Zuckerberg, Facebook was then competing with a series of platforms such as YouTube, Apple iMessage, Twitter, Telegram, Snapchat, and LinkedIn. However, TikTok became a serious threat. "In the next five years, people will share things in new ways than what is happening now," he said.
YouTube is a long-time rival.
Along with TikTok, Zuckerberg said he sees YouTube as an equally big rival. According to the Meta CEO, the number of users on his platforms has been declining, partly due to the rise of "richer forms of media," especially video.
"YouTube is the biggest competitor for creators," he said. "People spend more time on YouTube than on Facebook and Instagram combined, certainly more than on each platform individually."
Previously, a December 2024 study by Pew Research found that 90% of 13- to 17-year-olds in the US use YouTube. Meanwhile, Facebook usage has been declining from 71% in 2014-2015.
Buying Instagram and WhatsApp because of "fear of becoming a rival"
Meta acquired Instagram for $1 billion in April 2012. In 2014, the company spent $19 billion to buy WhatsApp. Documents presented at the hearing show that Mark Zuckerberg was worried that the two platforms could threaten Facebook's dominance.
In 2011, they developed Facebook Camera to compete with Instagram, but realized they couldn't keep up. Zuckerberg emailed employees, saying Instagram was "increasingly a viable and viable competitor in mobile photography," while Facebook Camera was "just OK."
In 2013, Zuckerberg told his then-chief growth officer, Javier Olivan, that he was worried WhatsApp would develop a Facebook-like feature "to win" in the U.S. and elsewhere. He had "sleepless nights" and considered "a real merger." A year later, Facebook bought WhatsApp.
In 2018, Zuckerberg shared in an email that he feared the company would be forced to split Instagram and WhatsApp "in the next 5-10 years." In preparation, he proposed to move Instagram out of the “family of apps” structure. However, he later decided not to “go it alone.”
Facebook’s declining appeal
Zuckerberg originally built Facebook to connect and share content with friends and family. At the trial, FTC lawyers asked Zuckerberg about an internal document from 2022 in which he said the Facebook friends feature was “losing its appeal.”
“The number of people sharing with their friends on Facebook is down in particular,” he confirmed. “Even the number of new friends, I think, is down. But I don’t have an exact number.”
However, the Meta CEO said that messaging between individuals or groups of friends is becoming more popular, rather than sharing content on personal pages. “Messaging has grown significantly, and sharing news on pages with friends has decreased.”