Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted on Tuesday that Instagram had a superior camera feature at the time of its acquisition, a key moment in an antitrust trial aimed at challenging the tech giant’s past mergers.

Speaking during his second day on the witness stand, Zuckerberg told the court that Meta—then known as Facebook—was developing a camera app when the decision was made to buy Instagram instead. “We were doing a build vs. buy analysis,” he said. “I thought that Instagram was better at that, so I thought it was better to buy them.”

The admission supports a central claim by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC): that Meta used a “buy or bury” strategy to neutralize emerging competitors and maintain a monopoly in the social media space. The FTC is seeking to unwind Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, arguing that these deals were anti-competitive.

Filed during the Trump administration, the case is viewed as a major test of U.S. regulators’ resolve to rein in Big Tech. The FTC alleges Meta has monopolized platforms used to share content with friends and family, stifling competition from smaller players like Snapchat and MeWe.

Under questioning, Zuckerberg acknowledged the challenges his company faced in building new products from scratch. “Building a new app is hard, and many more times than not when we have tried to build a new app, it hasn’t gotten a lot of traction,” he said. “We probably tried building dozens of apps over the history of the company and the majority of them don’t go anywhere.”

The FTC has drawn on internal company documents to build its case, including a 2008 email from Zuckerberg that stated, “It is better to buy than compete.”

Meta has countered by disputing the FTC’s definition of the social media market, arguing it ignores fierce competition from platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Apple’s messaging services.

Another point of contention is advertising. The FTC claims Meta’s dominance allows it to degrade user experience by increasing ad volume. Zuckerberg pushed back, arguing that the presence of more ads doesn’t necessarily harm users. “Ads on Meta’s apps have improved,” he said. “Our system is designed to show more ad content to people who like seeing ad content.”

He even revealed that Meta had floated the idea of an ad-only feed. “I think we have discussed it at different points, but I don’t think we have done it,” he added.