Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has provided a rare declaration during a major U.S. antitrust trial on Tuesday that Facebook acquired Instagram since it offered better performance than Meta’s current projects.
Under oath, Zuckerberg explained that Facebook conducted a comparison between internal development and external purchase. The quality of Instagram services prompted Facebook to pursue a purchase of their platform.
The statement strengthens arguments from the Federal Trade Commission that Meta Corporation employed a “buy or bury” method to keep social media competitors off its turf.
Federal Trade Commission officials strive to terminate Meta’s Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions, which remain the company’s largest acquisitions to date. Under President Trump, the case emerged, but it has evolved into a groundbreaking dispute that will determine Big Tech’s American future.
In 2012, Zuckerberg acknowledged that Instagram could seriously harm Facebook’s business operations when interviewers questioned him about the matter. The Facebook founder emphasized that Instagram’s camera function surpassed Facebook’s development of its camera platform.
He stated that constructing a new app remains a challenging task. During previous years, Facebook tried constructing multiple applications, yet most of these products failed to succeed.
READ ALSO: US Ambassador Shocked by 10% Tariff on Ghana’s Cocoa Exports
And to that effect, the genuine statements made by Zuckerberg could potentially harm Meta’s future performance. The statement made by Zuckerberg mirrors his well-known internal email from 2008, which declared, “It is better to buy than compete.”
Meta contends that the FTC applies obsolete reasoning to its case. It claims that its services encounter significant competition because of TikTok and YouTube as well as Snapchat and iMessage from Apple.
The FTC maintains that Facebook and Instagram offer unique features because they were created for connecting friends, while TikTok and Reddit do not share this fundamental aspect.
The ongoing court testimony between Zuckerberg will determine how tech corporations expand their operations and establish if acquiring a superior product represents an ethical practice or constitutes monopolistic conduct.
