Meta Executives Admit Facebook’s Challenges Competing with TikTok in Recent Court Filing

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, together with Instagram chief Adam Mosseri and other executives, identified TikTok as a significant competitor to Meta’s market position. This revelation comes from a recent filing in the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust case against Meta, published on Monday.

The document, dated February 2022, uncovers internal dialogues among Meta leaders about their strategies and positioning for Facebook and Instagram. In one message, Zuckerberg referred to Facebook as a “challenger” that has “lost mindshare and momentum,” pointing out how TikTok creates a “shared context” where friends engage with the same memes.

Mosseri agreed that Facebook should now be perceived as a challenger, stating that it no longer serves as the primary discovery engine. He suggested that while YouTube is currently the leading discovery platform, TikTok is likely to surpass it based on Meta’s available data.

“The most logical differentiated strategy for Facebook is to be the default discovery surface. However, it’s important to note that [TikTok] focuses entirely on video and is significantly outperforming us,” Mosseri remarked. “I suspect they are expanding the social mobile market and encroaching on traditional TV and long-form video services like Netflix.”

Mosseri’s viewpoint was supported by research showing that TikTok overtook YouTube in average watch time among U.S. viewers in 2021. A separate analysis by Qustodio revealed that children aged four to 18 spent 60% more time on TikTok compared to YouTube in 2023. In a bid to compete with YouTube, TikTok began permitting uploads of up to 60 minutes last year.

Recently, Netflix introduced a TikTok-like feature in its mobile app, offering a new vertical video feed customized to individual user interests.

Nevertheless, during the trial, the U.S. government aims to demonstrate that Meta violated competition laws by acquiring companies like Instagram and WhatsApp, effectively establishing a social networking monopoly. Documents such as this may weaken their case, as Meta executives have internally recognized TikTok’s competitive advantage.

For instance, Zuckerberg noted that while Facebook may still rank as the top app in daily or weekly user engagement, it no longer leads in overall time spent on the platform.

He also indicated that TikTok excels at fostering a shared context among users. In other words, if you and your friends share common interests, you’re likely to see similar content in TikTok’s feed.

“This inherently cultivates a social atmosphere since you don’t need to share content directly; you can assume they’ve already seen it,” the CEO explained. “Achieving a comparable level on Facebook with diverse topics and unrelated content would be beneficial.”

Other executives contributed their insights during the discussion.

Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp, pointed out that TikTok enables users to comment on niche videos, encouraging the algorithm to continuously direct them and other commenters toward similar content.

Stan Chudnovsky, a former vice president and general manager at Meta, noted that Meta is now competing in a fragmented landscape crowded with multiple companies threatening its growth.

“Simply rolling out a new format (as we did with Stories) isn’t enough anymore. There are far too many platforms for people to engage with,” he stated, mentioning popular U.S. social applications like TikTok, Twitter, iMessage, Snap, YouTube, Reddit, and Discord.

John Hegeman, the former VP of ads (now chief revenue officer), recognized TikTok’s clear leadership in short-form video content, ranking features, and creation tools. However, he believed that Meta could catch up by encouraging creators to utilize Reels as well.

Yet, he admitted uncertainty regarding how far behind Meta is in terms of machine learning, technical capabilities, and creation tools. The document illustrates that Meta considers Facebook as the underdog in the social media arena.

This isn’t the only document revealed during the trial that highlights Meta’s concerns about competition. Last month, Zuckerberg testified that TikTok’s success is a threat to Meta’s business and has stunted its growth.