Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified Wednesday that TikTok posed a serious threat to the company’s dominance, describing the short-form video app as a “top priority” and “highly urgent” competitive challenge when it emerged in 2018.
His remarks came during the first week of the United States Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust trial against Meta, according to Bloomberg and other outlets.
The high-profile trial could force Meta to spin off major platforms like Instagram or WhatsApp if the FTC succeeds in proving that the company has unfairly stifled competition.
Zuckerberg acknowledged that TikTok’s rise had a direct impact on Meta’s performance. “Our growth slowed down dramatically,” he said, referencing the period when TikTok’s popularity surged. He added that the ByteDance-owned app has remained a central focus of Meta’s competitive strategy ever since.
TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, acquired Musical.ly in 2017 and merged it into TikTok the following year—coinciding with a significant shift at Meta. Around that time, the company stopped publishing Facebook-specific user numbers in its earnings reports and began using a broader “family of apps” metric that included Instagram and WhatsApp.
The move was widely seen as an effort to obscure slowing growth in Meta’s flagship product.
During Wednesday’s testimony, Zuckerberg also spoke about evolving dynamics in social media, saying platforms today operate more like “discovery engines” than tools for connecting with friends and family. “People can take that content to messaging engines,” he explained, downplaying the importance of traditional “network effects.”
Still, Zuckerberg admitted Meta is revisiting its roots. In January, he told investors that a “return to OG Facebook” would be a key focus for 2025. In line with that goal, Meta has introduced new features to help users reconnect with friends, including an updated Friends tab that spotlights requests and social activity.
