Mark Zuckerberg says TikTok slowed Meta's growth

Core Insights - Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified that TikTok poses a significant competitive threat to Meta's business, labeling it a "top priority" since its emergence in 2018 [1] - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's trial could lead to Meta being required to separate Instagram or WhatsApp into independent companies if the FTC's case is successful [2] - Zuckerberg acknowledged that TikTok's popularity has directly affected Meta, causing a "dramatic" slowdown in growth for the company [3] Competitive Landscape - The acquisition of Musical.ly by ByteDance in 2017 and its merger with TikTok in 2018 coincided with Meta's decision to stop reporting Facebook's user numbers, opting for a "family of apps" metric to obscure slowing growth [4] - Zuckerberg noted a shift in social media dynamics, stating that apps now primarily function as discovery engines rather than relying on personal connections for growth [5] - Despite this shift, Meta is attempting to re-emphasize network effects by introducing new features aimed at enhancing connections among friends, with a goal to return to its original social networking roots by 2025 [5]