According to a recent filing in the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's antitrust lawsuit against Meta, CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram head Adam Mosseri, and other executives at the company believed that TikTok was outperforming Meta in its core business areas.

The document, originating from February 2022, contains discussions among several Meta executives concerning the strategic approach and market standing of Facebook and Instagram. Within one particular message, Zuckerberg characterised Facebook as a "challenger" that had "forfeited mindshare and momentum," while further suggesting that TikTok fostered a "sense of collective awareness" where acquaintances encountered identical memes, as he conveyed.

Mosseri conceded that Facebook should now be considered a competitor, observing it's no longer the primary means of content discovery. He suggested that YouTube might currently be the dominant discovery platform, but anticipated TikTok would eventually overtake the Google-owned video service, based on the data Meta possessed.

Mosseri posited that Facebook's most logical approach to stand out would be to become the primary platform for content discovery, but noted TikTok's surprising dominance with its exclusive video format, remarking, "It’s interesting that [TikTok] is 100% video and beating us badly." He speculated that TikTok's success stemmed from expanding the mobile social media market while simultaneously encroaching upon traditional television, longer video content, and streaming services like Netflix.

Research indicates that Mosseri's prediction proved accurate; in 2021, TikTok surpassed YouTube in the U.S. for average watch time, and a 2023 study by Qustodio revealed children aged four to eighteen spent significantly more time on TikTok, a trend TikTok aims to further exploit by permitting 60-minute uploads.

Just this week, Netflix debuted its own TikTok-esque feature within its mobile application, presenting a novel vertical video stream of suggested content, tailored to each user.

However, during the trial, the U.S. government is endeavoring to demonstrate that Meta infringed upon competition regulations by procuring entities such as Instagram and WhatsApp with the aim of establishing a social networking monopoly. A document of this nature could undermine the case, particularly considering that, within Meta's internal discussions, executives acknowledged the significant competition Facebook was facing from TikTok.

For example, Zuckerberg pointed out that although Facebook continued to be the leading application by daily or weekly active users, it was surpassed by others in terms of time spent by individuals.

He further posited that TikTok fosters a sense of shared context, suggesting that mutual interests among individuals are likely to result in encountering identical content within their respective feeds.

This makes it social because instead of sending content to a friend, you can just assume they have seen it,” the CEO said. “If we could get to this level with topics and different content on FB, that would be great.

Several other executives also interjected their perspectives.

WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart noted that TikTok users engaging with niche video content through comments would prompt the algorithm to repeatedly connect them and other commenters with similar videos.

Stan Chudnovsky, who was then serving as a VP and GM at Meta, further commented that Meta had entered a competitive arena that had become increasingly fragmented, with numerous companies encroaching upon their growth.

"Just adding a new format, like we did with Stories, isn't enough anymore. There are simply too many other places for people to spend their time," he added, mentioning other popular social apps in the U.S., including TikTok, Twitter, iMessage, Snap, YouTube, Reddit, and Discord.

John Hegeman, who was the vice president of advertising and is now the chief revenue officer, agreed that TikTok was clearly ahead in areas like short videos, how they rank content, and tools for making videos. However, he believed Meta could catch up by encouraging creators to also post on Reels.

However, he expressed reservations about the extent to which Meta lagged behind technically, particularly in machine learning and creation tools, and the document suggests Meta perceives Facebook as a challenger rather than a dominant force in the social media arena.

This document isn't the only one that has appeared during the trial to show that Meta is worried about competition. Zuckerberg himself said last month that TikTok's success was a risk to Meta's business and had made it grow more slowly.