Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp, testified that his company did not intend to develop social networking features prior to its acquisition by Meta, reinforcing Meta's defense against antitrust claims from the FTC. The FTC alleges that Meta's acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram have resulted in an illegal monopoly in social networking. While Meta disagrees, citing competition from various platforms, Acton's statements highlight WhatsApp's original focus as a private messaging service, potentially undermining claims regarding its competitive stance before its purchase.
We had no ambition to build Facebook-like functionality like a feed or any Facebook-like features.
WhatsApp could have stuck with a subscription business instead of selling targeted ads if the service had remained independent.
The biggest competitive vector for us is for some company to build out a messaging app for communicating with small groups of people, and then transforming that into a broader social network.
Meta has disputed the allegations and argued that it faces vast competition from several rivals, including TikTok and Apple Inc.
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