Zuckerberg says he bought Instagram and WhatsApp because building apps are difficult

On a second day at a landmark antitastely trial stand, Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said he bought Instagram and WhatsApp as it was difficult to create new apps and question whether he was trying to smell competitive threats for his company.

“It is difficult to create a new app,” he said that when asked what was presented in an email of 2012, it seemed with the intention of buying Instagram. “We have probably tried to create dozens of apps on the history of the company, and most of them do not go anywhere.”

“We could make an app,” he said. “It is a matter of speculation or not.”

Mr. Zuckerberg’s testimony is the central for the antitrust trial, which is being held in the US district court for Colombia district. The Chief Executive on Monday spent about three hours to answer questions from lawyers as he tried to make the matter that Mr. Zuckerberg saw other apps as rivals, which they needed to be taken out, which raised questions like a cat-and mouse that many times became controversial.

The case, the Federal Trade Commission vs. Meta Platform, is a resulting threat to Shri Zuckerberg’s business, which he co-established in 2004 as Facebook in his Harvard Derm Room. FTC Judge James E. Asking Boseburg, who is presiding over the case, blaming the company for using the “by-OR-Bari” strategy. Meta bought Instagram in 2012 for $ 1 billion and WhatsApp for $ 19 billion in 2014.

When successful, the government is likely to ask the judge to break the meta through selling two apps.

Nevertheless, legal experts warned, FTC faced a difficult climb to win. The government is asking a judge to look back more than a decade for more than a decade and prove that Meta was powerful leaving the contestants through its acquisition. Experts said that the regulators approved Instagram and WhatsApp deals at that time, questioning why, the experts said.

The suit against Meta is part of a broad push by American registers to curb the power of the largest technical companies. FTC has also filed a lawsuit against Amazon, alleging that of squeezing vendors on its huge market and protecting monopoly in favor of their services.

The Department of Justice won a lawsuit last year accusing Google of maintaining a monopoly in search, and a test has been set for the next week to determine the measures for violations. DOJ has sued Google on its dominance in advertising technology. The aim of a suit was also aimed by the Apple government, which accused the iPhone and iPad users of making it difficult to leave their ecosystem.

While making a statement in the meta trial on Monday, the FTC stated that the company’s Instagram and WhatsApp procurement strengthened its power, depriving consumers of other social-networking options and ending the competition.

Meta lawyers denied allegations in opening statements, stating that the company faces a lot of competition from Tikokk and other social media platforms. The lawyers said that trying to open the merger after approved a decade ago would set a dangerous example.

On Tuesday, FTC lawyers pressurized Mr. Zuckerberg to explain internal communication, which was before the purchase of Instagram and WhatsApp, both bought the company later. Mr. Zuckerberg’s notes – some of which are 15 years ago – detailed fears that his social media company, then known as Facebook, may compete on mobile devices.

On Tuesday, Mr. Matheson pointed out emails between Mr. Zuckerberg and his top officials since 2012, in which he traded clear views on employee performance, potential and previous acquisition and the threat of upstart contestants.

In an email to the former Meta Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg, Mr. Zuckerberg said that he could teach her to play the buses of a popular board game Catent. He criticized some lieutenants, saying that his difference performance was one of the reasons that he needed to buy Instagram at $ 1 billion.

“One billion dollars are very expensive,” Mr. Zuckerberg said at the stand.

In another email in 2013, Mr. Zuckerberg asked the authorities to block foreign contestants from advertising on Facebook, including popular Asian messaging apps such as Kakao and WeChat.

“Those companies are trying to create social networks and change us,” he wrote. “Revenue is essential for us compared to any risk.”

Mr. Zuckerberg is expected to testify a total of seven hours. The FTC said Instagram co-founder Ms. Sandberg and Kevin Sestrom would testify this week.