According to Bloomberg, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook parent company Meta, singled out TikTok when testifying in an antitrust case on Wednesday, claiming that it posed a very urgent threat to the company.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is seeking to force Meta to divest Instagram and WhatsApp on the grounds that Meta acquired these companies to eliminate direct competitive threats, thereby creating an illegal monopoly in the social media field.
Zuckerberg and Meta lawyers argued that many rivals compete with Meta for users. On Wednesday, Zuckerberg highlighted competition from TikTok. He said that when TikTok rose to prominence in 2018, it posed a "very urgent" competitive threat to Meta.
"We have observed that as TikTok becomes more popular, our growth slows down significantly," Zuckerberg said on Wednesday. "This threat is very urgent and has been a top priority for the company for several years."
Eventually, Meta launched a short video competitor called Reels, which now brings a lot of video traffic to the company.