Washington, D.C. Yesterday, during the current Federal Trade Commission (FTC) trial, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that Facebook and Instagram user activity has “gone down meaningfully” amid heightened attention shifting to messaging apps. It is the first time that the tech giant admitted decline at the services, whose dominance is facing heavy scrutiny now.
Zuckerberg’s testimony addresses an ominous pattern: TikTok has an average user spend of 108 minutes per day, far outrunning Facebook at 63, with Instagram at the rear at 48 minutes. Even as Meta has pushed AI-driven Reels to the forefront to compete with the short-form video revolution, user momentum has only been declining further.
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In a provocative, radical proposal, Zuckerberg has at one time suggested deleting the social graphs of the users—Facebook’s networking fundamentals—in an attempt to inject new life and trigger new growth. The never-executed plan is evidence of Meta’s desperation to slow the declining user engagement.
At the heart of the trial is the question of whether Meta’s previous purchases of Instagram (2012) and WhatsApp (2014) should be unraveled on grounds of being anticompetitive. Although the FTC alleges that these purchases smothered competition, legal commentators maintain existing evidence may not be enough to mandate Meta to dismantle its kingdom. To be closely observed in Silicon Valley and beyond, the trial, which could take two months.
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With the increasing pressures and shifting use patterns, the future of Meta social media dominance remains uncertain. This one thing, however, is certain: social media is evolving at a rapid pace and Meta is no longer the innovator.
