Cheryl Sandberg says Meta has considered blocking competitor ads in antitrust trials for landmarks
Former Chief Operating Officer of Meta Cheryl Sandberg In a groundbreaking antitrust incident on Wednesday, the company testified that it had considered blocking ads from Facebook’s emerging competitors.
Sandberg was quized amid allegations that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had broken the competition by buying Instagram and WhatsApp and established an illegal monopoly to maintain control in the social media market.
Facebook has acquired Instagram Photo sharing app In 2012, I bought the messaging app WhatsApp for $1 billion, ad-free, and two years later, for $22 billion.
FTC chair weight is a meta antitrust test
Sandberg confirmed that Meta has considered blocking ads from competing platforms on Facebook, including Google Plus, Kakaotalk and Line. She was asked about a 2011 message she sent to staff after Google launched Google Plus and then called Google Plus “Real Competition.”
During testimony on Wednesday, she characterized the comments as a team motive, not as a confirmation of market threats.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg He highlighted that he bought Instagram and WhatsApp because he saw value in the company to avoid taking competitors.
In a personal discussion between Zuckerberg and Sandberg in 2012, Sandberg expressed her stance that she was skeptical about Instagram’s billion-dollar price tag and admitted she was wrong now.
“I think I was wrong. I think I was very wrong,” Sandberg testified.
I’m trying to explain the message he was worried about Instagram Zuckerberg said that although it was a competitive threat, the app’s cameras are better than the camera features developed by Meta.
Zuckerberg said that during the process of building the camera app, we were “building and purchasing analysis.” “I thought Instagram was good, so I thought it would be better to buy it.”
The comments appeared to reinforce the FTC’s claim that Meta chose to buy a rival rather than compete. Meta argues that Zuckerberg’s motivation is not important because he has no monopoly.
Zuckerberg also said it was his job to understand what is happening in such a competitive industry. He is expected to depend on defining the markets META operates and assessing whether the acquisition has benefited consumers.
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Meta Attorney Mark Hansen said in an opening statement that Meta and its apps will not be considered an unfair monopoly if users do not have to spend a cent on the service.
moreover, Tiktok and It also includes YouTube, and Meta’s market share is below 30%, Meta claims.
US District Judge James Boasberg is the main dissection of the case., It rejected the meta request for last year’s summary judgment and determined that the case had to go to trial.
Reuters contributed to this report.