According to a recent submission in the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's antitrust litigation against the tech behemoth, divulged on Monday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram lead Adam Mosseri, and other Meta executives held the conviction that TikTok was outmanoeuvring Meta on its own terrain.

The February 2022 document provides insight into discussions among various Meta executives regarding Facebook and Instagram's strategic direction and market standing, notably featuring a message from Zuckerberg characterising Facebook as a "challenger" that had "lost the mindshare and momentum," while positing that TikTok fosters a "feeling of shared context" through the proliferation of common cultural artefacts such as memes.

Mosseri concurred that Facebook should now be perceived as a competitor, observing its diminished role as the prevailing discovery engine, opining that while YouTube might currently hold that position, he anticipated TikTok's eventual ascendancy over the Google-owned platform, extrapolating from the data available to Meta.

Mosseri posited that Facebook's most organically advantageous strategy for differentiation lies in establishing itself as the quintessential discovery interface; however, he found it noteworthy that TikTok, being exclusively video-centric, was significantly outperforming them, conjecturing that TikTok's ascendance stemmed from its expansion of the social mobile market, simultaneously encroaching upon the domains of television, protracted video content, and streaming services like Netflix.

Mosseri's assertion was substantiated: a 2021 analysis indicated TikTok had surpassed YouTube in average watch time within the United States, a trend further corroborated by a Qustodio study revealing that in 2023, children between the ages of four and eighteen dedicated 60% more time to the platform than its competitor; consequently, TikTok has initiated a strategic move to permit uploads of up to 60 minutes, presenting a direct challenge to YouTube's established dominance.

In the current week alone, Netflix has launched its proprietary TikTok-esque feature within its mobile application, presenting a novel vertical video feed comprising recommended content, meticulously tailored to each individual user.

Conversely, the ongoing litigation sees the U.S. administration endeavouring to substantiate allegations of Meta's infringement of antitrust statutes through its strategic acquisitions of entities such as Instagram and WhatsApp, ostensibly with the intent of forging a hegemonic social media landscape; a document such as the one in question could significantly compromise their position, particularly as it reveals internal discourse among Meta's leadership acknowledging Facebook's palpable competitive disadvantage vis-à-vis TikTok.

To cite an illustrative instance, Zuckerberg posited that notwithstanding Facebook's retention of its pre-eminence as the paramount application in terms of its user engagement metrics on a diurnal or hebdomadal frequency, it had been superseded as the predominant application in terms of temporal allocation.

He further posited that TikTok possesses an intrinsic capacity to furnish users with a sense of collective understanding; thus, he articulated, a congruence in interests among individuals and their associates will likely precipitate a shared encounter with identical content within the algorithmic currents of the platform's feed.

"Its intrinsically social nature stems from the premise that, rather than necessitating content transmission to a peer, one can presuppose their prior exposure to it," elucidated the CEO, adding, "Attaining a comparable level of pervasive dissemination for topics and disparate content on FB would be a remarkable achievement."

A confluence of other executives also interjected their viewpoints.

WhatsApp Chief, Will Cathcart, elucidated that TikTok's algorithmic infrastructure could facilitate the aggregation of users who engage with content within specific niche categories, thereby progressively channeling both the initial commenter and other contributors to similar video content.

Stan Chudnovsky, who held the position of Vice President and General Manager at Meta at that juncture, further elucidated that Meta had embarked upon a competitive trajectory within a domain that had witnessed significant fragmentation, characterized by a plethora of enterprises encroaching upon their expansion.

The mere introduction of a novel format, akin to our implementation of Stories, no longer suffices; the landscape of digital presence is now vastly more saturated, he further elucidated, referencing a plethora of prevalent social applications within the U.S., encompassing TikTok, Twitter, iMessage, Snap, YouTube, Reddit, and Discord.

John Hegeman, then the VP of ads (and now chief revenue officer), conceded that TikTok unequivocally held sway in domains such as short-form video content, ranking algorithms, and creative utilities, but posited that Meta possessed the wherewithal to bridge the chasm by incentivizing creators to cross-post on Reels.

Nevertheless, he professed greater uncertainty concerning the extent of Meta's lag in the domains of machine learning, technical infrastructure, and creative utility development; the document portrays Facebook, in Meta's estimation, as a market challenger in the social media landscape.

Beyond that, it is not the sole document unearthed throughout the trial attesting to Meta's apprehension regarding competition; indeed, Zuckerberg himself averred under oath last month that TikTok's burgeoning success represented both an existential threat to Meta's commercial operations and a decelerating factor in its trajectory of expansion.