Mark Zuckerberg testified that China-owned Tiktok is a threat to “very urgent” competition against Meta. He tried to derail the FTC bid to disband Facebook and Instagram owners at Washington’s groundbreaking antitrust trial.
Zuckerberg testified for the third day in a row in the incident on Wednesday, but tried to bolster meta’s argument that it faces fierce competition with Tiktok, Google-owned YouTube and other platforms for the attention of other users.
“We observed that our growth slowed dramatically [as TikTok rose in popularity in 2018]According to Bloomberg, Zuckerberg said in response to a question from Meta’s chief attorney, Mark Hansen.
“It was very urgent. This has been a top priority for the company for several years,” added Zuckerberg.
The FTC claims that Zuckerberg used a “purchase or compensate” strategy to acquire startups such as Instagram and WhatsApp before he challenged the meta monopoly. As part of that case, the agency defines Snapchat as the only real competitor, as its marketplace of social media platforms built on friend-family connections.
Zuckerberg pushed back by claiming in the witness stand that meta apps like Facebook and Instagram “mainly function as discovery engines” are not very dependent on the Friends-and-Family model. He pointed out Tiktok, Google-owned YouTube and Apple’s Imessage as direct competitors.
“People will share in five years in a new way than what’s going on today,” Zuckerberg added.
Zuckerberg also disputed the claim that he bought Instagram to keep his competitors down, claiming the deal helped the app’s growth rather than hurting it.
The Facebook founder was facing the grill early in the week from an FTC lawyer who used Zuckerberg’s words in past emails and messages as evidence of Meta’s anti-competitive practices.
The Fed has presented its 2018 document. Zuckerberg personally acknowledged that the ownership of the company on Instagram is likely to elicit antitrust scrutiny.
“I think we should consider the extreme step of spinning out Instagram as a separate company,” Zuckerberg said.
“As the appeal for big tech companies grows, there is a small chance that they will be forced to spin out Instagram and WhatsApp in the next five to ten years anyway,” he added.
In another 2012 email exchange, Zuckerberg confirmed to former CFO David Ebersman that he “neutralizes his competitors” by purchasing Instagram.
Zuckerberg also admitted in court that he bought Instagram because the app developed an in-app camera feature “better” than Facebook built at the time.
Elsewhere, the FTC revealed that Zuckerberg once offered $6 billion to acquire Snapchat, but was turned down by CEO Evan Spiegel.
Zuckerberg’s testimony was expected to end Wednesday afternoon. Sheryl Sandberg, former Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, will testify that he will be out.
Before the trial began, Metah had frantic lobbying President Trump and approved a settlement that would allow Zuckerberg to avoid appearing in court.
Zuckerberg reportedly called FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson in late March, offering just $450 million to settle government claims. This was just a small portion of the $30 billion settlement that Ferguson is sought.
The billionaire rebutted an offer of nearly $1 billion, but Ferguson said he would not approve anything less than $18 billion, and the consent blocked the meta from exclusive practices.
Although the pre-trial settlement consultation ultimately failed, a transaction could occur at any point in the trial. Ferguson and other FTC officials have asserted that they are ready to fight the lawsuit through their conclusions.
