The CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, stated that the reason for purchasing Instagram was its “better camera.”

During an antitrust trial in the United States, Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, mentioned that the decision to acquire Instagram was influenced by the app having a “better” camera than the camera app Facebook was trying to develop at that time. In Washington, D.C., during the second day of the trial where the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sought to reverse Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, Zuckerberg responded to FTC lawyers’ question about whether Instagram posed a rapid growth threat to Meta with the following answer:

“We were trying to develop our own camera app at that time, but Instagram was better than us in that aspect. Hence, the decision to buy made more sense.” “DEVELOPING A NEW APP IS HARD”

Zuckerberg also admitted that most of Meta’s attempts to develop their own applications have been unsuccessful, stating, “Developing a new app is really hard. Throughout our company’s history, we have tried dozens of app attempts, but most of them did not succeed.” In its defense during the trial, Meta argued that the FTC narrowly defined the social media market and ignored strong competitors like TikTok, YouTube, and Apple’s messaging service. The FTC, however, accuses Meta of illegally monopolizing platforms that users use to share content with their friends and family. According to the Commission, the primary competitors in this space are only Snapchat and a small-scale app called MeWe. Despite Meta’s argument that its past strategies cannot be linked to today’s competitive landscape, internal messages from Zuckerberg years ago stating “It’s better to buy than to compete” are complicating the company’s position.