Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in the FTC v. Meta antitrust trial, challenging the government’s argument that he acquired WhatsApp and Instagram to eliminate potential competition. The trial, which began on April 14th, involves the FTC attempting to unwind Meta’s acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram.
Zuckerberg spent roughly 13 hours across three days answering questions from the FTC and Meta lawyers, refuting the core argument that he bought both apps to take them out and not to make them better. He stated that he acquired WhatsApp in 2014 because he saw it as a valuable asset to help Facebook navigate the shift towards private messaging.
During his testimony, Zuckerberg revealed that he met with WhatsApp co-founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton and believed they had a disdain for social media and advertising, making it “extremely unlikely” for WhatsApp to compete with Facebook. He claimed he pushed WhatsApp to add social features like Stories after the acquisition. An internal deck prepared for Facebook’s board of directors around the time of the WhatsApp acquisition predicted that the app would hit 2 billion users by 2024.
In court, Zuckerberg revealed that WhatsApp now has nearly 3 billion users, and Meta makes $10 billion a year from ads that send people to interact with businesses on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. This significant growth and revenue generation were highlighted as key outcomes of the acquisition.
Regarding Instagram, Zuckerberg said he wasn’t initially worried about it competing with Facebook until it reached 1 billion users. He then directed the Instagram team to rely less on feature integrations with Facebook for traffic, which didn’t sit well with Instagram’s co-founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, who quit the company shortly after. Zuckerberg claimed he provided resources to Instagram to fight spam and scale its operations, contributing to its success.
Internal documents showed that Instagram had only 10 million users when it was acquired by Facebook. Zuckerberg predicted that it was “extremely unlikely” that the app would have been as successful on its own. Instagram now has over 2 billion users, underscoring the significant growth it experienced under Meta’s ownership.
Meta’s former COO, Sheryl Sandberg, also testified, stating that she initially thought the $1 billion price for Instagram was too high but now believes she was wrong. “I think I was wrong,” she said. “Like, very wrong.” This admission further supports the notion that the acquisitions were seen as valuable investments.
Zuckerberg’s testimony portrayed Instagram and WhatsApp as investments that surpassed his expectations, contradicting the FTC’s accusation that he carried out a catch-and-kill strategy to cement a monopoly. The trial continues to unfold with the FTC attempting to unwind Meta’s significant acquisitions.
