Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, arrived at the Federal Court in Washington on Wednesday to participate in the trial of the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust lawsuit.

This week, as the trial of the landmark antitrust lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission began, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg testified on the witness stand in defense of Meta's acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.

However, it turns out that Zuckerberg had predicted years ago that he might find himself in this situation, even suggesting the divestiture of Instagram himself.

This is one of several key points in Zuckerberg's more than ten hours of testimony. In his testimony, he refuted the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) allegations that the company illegally established a "social networking monopoly" through acquisitions of potential competitors. The testimony portrays how Zuckerberg views competition and the struggles of the company in the rapidly evolving social media landscape. Zuckerberg believes that the social media landscape is driving users toward competitors like TikTok and YouTube.

There is significant risk for Meta, as if it fails, it may be forced to sell Instagram and WhatsApp.

Below are some of the points Zuckerberg made before Sheryl Sandberg, former COO of Facebook, testified on Wednesday.

Zuckerberg Considered Divesting Instagram

According to an email presented in court, in 2018, Zuckerberg expressed concerns to other executives that "with increasing calls to break up large tech companies, we are very likely to be forced to divest Instagram, or even WhatsApp, within the next 5 to 10 years."

In light of this, Zuckerberg suggested divesting Instagram, as the company's "family of apps" structure could harm Facebook. He added, "Most companies actually perform better after being split up."

Of course, Meta ultimately did not divest Instagram or WhatsApp, and now it is going to court against the Federal Trade Commission to avoid such action.

Zuckerberg Fears Competition from Instagram and WhatsApp

Documents provided during questioning by Daniel Matheson, an attorney for the Federal Trade Commission, show that Zuckerberg was indeed concerned about the threat posed by Instagram and WhatsApp before acquiring them.

In 2011, Zuckerberg seemed to realize that Facebook's once non-existent Facebook Camera service lagged behind Instagram in functionality and popularity.

In an email at the time, Zuckerberg wrote, "After all the time we spent reaching an agreement, Instagram has become a strong and formidable competitor in the mobile photo space, which will increasingly be the future of photography." Facebook eventually acquired Instagram for $1 billion in April 2012.

In 2012, Zuckerberg wrote in an email to then COO Sheryl Sandberg, "Mike Schroepfer's team is doing well technically, but so far this year the performance is just okay."

"Messenger hasn't beaten WhatsApp, and Instagram is growing much faster than us, so we have to acquire it for $1 billion. But this won't completely destroy it," he wrote in the email.

In 2013, Zuckerberg told Javier Olivan, then head of growth, that he was worried WhatsApp would develop features similar to those of Facebook and Instagram and might "succeed in the U.S. and other markets." At the time, Olivan responded that he couldn't sleep worrying whether WhatsApp was a "real rival." Meanwhile, Facebook also feared that Google might acquire WhatsApp first.

However, Zuckerberg said on the witness stand Wednesday that after meeting with platform co-founder Jan Koum, he believed that building competitive features on WhatsApp was "extremely unlikely."

Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014.

Zuckerberg also claimed that Meta's acquisitions allowed these platforms to better serve users.

People Rarely Add New Friends on Facebook Anymore

Zuckerberg initially created Facebook to connect with family and friends and share content. However, the Federal Trade Commission claims that Meta currently dominates this market.

But Zuckerberg said that usage rates of its products have been declining.

The FTC's lawyer asked Zuckerberg about an internal document from 2022 on Tuesday, which stated that "friendship and friend sharing are losing momentum."

"Especially the amount of information people share with friends on Facebook has been declining," Zuckerberg said. "Even the number of new friends added... I think it's also declining. But I don't know the exact numbers."

However, the future doesn't necessarily mean充斥ing with content creators' dynamics. Zuckerberg said that person-to-person or group messaging is becoming more popular than sharing content on more public social media feeds.

"Message volume is skyrocketing, while the phenomenon of sharing streams with friends is decreasing," he said on Tuesday.

Zuckerberg Views YouTube as a Powerful Competitor

Meta's CEO said this week in the witness stand that not only TikTok and Snapchat; Google's YouTube platform is also a major competitor for Facebook.

YouTube indeed attracts the attention of younger audiences; the Pew Research Center found that nine out of ten American teens use YouTube, while Facebook usage among this age group has "plummeted" over the past decade.

Zuckerberg attributes part of this to the increasing functionality of mobile networks over the past decade and the rise of "richer media forms" such as video. "YouTube is the most competitive platform for content creators," he said Wednesday, referring to online influencers who have amassed large followings by posting videos on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.

"My understanding is... people spend more time on YouTube than they do combined on Facebook and Instagram, and certainly more than on either one alone," he said.

Despite this, data from the Pew Research Center shows that Meta still firmly controls the social media market, especially in the U.S., where it operates a quarter of the most widely used social media platforms in the country.

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