Testifying in a crucial antitrust trial this week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged TikTok’s rapid rise significantly affected Meta’s growth trajectory. He described the popular short-form video app as a “top priority” and a “highly urgent competitive threat” since its emergence in 2018.
Speaking before a federal court, Zuckerberg explained that TikTok’s immediate success directly influenced Meta, drastically decelerating the growth rate of his social media platforms. He confirmed that the ByteDance-owned platform has remained a central competitor for Meta, consistently shaping the company’s strategic decisions in recent years.
TikTok, which surged in popularity after ByteDance acquired and merged it with Musical.ly in 2017, entered the U.S. market forcefully, capturing significant market share in audience attention. Around that same period, facing slowing user numbers for Facebook, Meta altered its reporting practices to consolidate figures across WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook into a broader “family of apps” metric—in essence minimizing emphasis on Facebook’s slowing expansion.
Zuckerberg also touched on broader trends reshaping social media. He argued that leveraging the social connections among family and friends to fuel platform growth—a critical aspect for early Facebook—has become less crucial. Instead, Zuckerberg characterized contemporary social apps as “discovery engines,” noting people increasingly shift the discovered content onto messaging platforms to deepen interactions.
However, he confirmed Meta is simultaneously pivoting back toward its original foundation focused on interpersonal connections. Meta recently unveiled features supporting easier friend connections, including an updated Friends tab emphasizing friend requests and social activity. Earlier this year, Zuckerberg had already informed investors of plans to reconnect users through an initiative termed “return to OG Facebook,” earmarking this strategy as a top priority for 2025.
The Federal Trade Commission, which initiated the ongoing antitrust lawsuit, aims to compel Meta to spin off either Instagram or WhatsApp should it acquire a favorable ruling. The outcome of this high-profile case could reshape the competitive landscape of social media for years to come.
