Zuckerberg calls TikTok a 'highly urgent' threat to Meta

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in the FTC’s antitrust trial, addressing the competitive threat posed by TikTok.

He called TikTok a “highly urgent” concern since its rise in 2018, stating that Meta’s growth was significantly affected.

The trial examines allegations that Meta monopolized parts of the social media market by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp, and the FTC is pushing for Meta to divest these apps.

Zuckerberg defended the acquisitions, saying Instagram and WhatsApp reached their scale due to Meta’s resources.

He pointed out that other large platforms, like TikTok and YouTube, are also owned by major companies.

🔗 Source: Fortune

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Acquisition as competitive strategy: a historical pattern with increasing risks

Meta’s acquisition strategy has been a consistent response to competitive threats for over a decade, but the regulatory landscape has evolved significantly since those early deals.

When Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, it faced minimal regulatory scrutiny despite Instagram’s growing popularity as a mobile-first platform during Facebook’s desktop-to-mobile transition period.

This pattern continued with WhatsApp ($19 billion in 2014) and smaller acquisitions like tbh, with Facebook consistently buying rivals or copying their features rather than competing directly 1.

Chris Hughes, Facebook co-founder, highlighted this pattern in 2019, noting that no major social media platform had emerged since 2011, demonstrating how acquisitions effectively suppressed competition and contributed to Facebook’s dominance in social media advertising (84% market share) 2.

Zuckerberg himself acknowledged the increasing regulatory risk in 2018, writing: “As calls to break up the big tech companies grow, there is a non-trivial chance that we will be forced to spin out Instagram and perhaps WhatsApp in the next 5-10 years anyway” 3.

The current trial represents the culmination of this evolving regulatory approach to big tech acquisitions, with potential ramifications extending far beyond Meta to other tech giants who pursued similar growth strategies.

2️⃣ TikTok’s disruption forced Meta to shift from acquisition to imitation

TikTok’s explosive growth represents the first major challenge to Meta’s social media dominance that couldn’t be resolved through acquisition, fundamentally changing how the company responds to competitive threats.