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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that the company was a bit slow in recognizing TikTok's massive rise. He explained that Meta developers did not consider TikTok as a social media platform. Zuckerberg's comments were captured in a recording from an internal meeting, offering insights into how Meta misjudged one of the biggest social media trends in recent years. Meta CEO also urged his employees to buckle up for an intense year ahead.
In the recording obtained by Business Insider Zuckerberg can be heard saying, "When I look back on TikTok, I think part of the reason why we were slow to it is because we didn't think TikTok was social. We looked at it and we thought, 'Oh, this is like, a little more like YouTube." Apparently, Zuckerberg made this remark in response to an employee's question about whether Meta's strong focus on artificial intelligence (AI) could cause the company to miss the next big social media trend—just as Meta did with TikTok.
This concern is relevant, as Meta, along with other AI giants in the US, is facing challenges from budget AI startup, DeepSeek. The startup has shaken the AI industry by delivering high efficiency and overtaking the performance of the likes of ChatGPT for a fraction of the cost. In response, Meta has reportedly formed four war rooms to analyze how DeepSeek managed to outperform rivals at lower costs.
Regarding TikTok, Meta initially believed that social media meant interactions with loved ones—posting, commenting, and engaging in discussions. Because of this narrow view, Meta failed to realize how people on TikTok were sharing videos through private messages—a key form of interaction on Meta's platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. Zuckerberg added, "Because we were too dismissive, we didn’t see that people were sharing TikTok videos in message threads."
Meta CEO also touched upon the gloomy clouds of the ban on TikTok in the US. The company faced a brief ban in the US but became operative after President Trump signed an executive order to give a breather to the ByteDance-owned company to find a potential buyer. Zuckerberg said that there's nothing that they can do about TikTok's situation, the company can focus on enhancing and implementing new AI features on Facebook and Instagram, such as interactive AI agents that users can converse with for a more immersive experience.
At the end of the meeting, Zuckerberg also warned its employees that if they can't build Facebook and other Meta apps at the same time, then it eventually game over. But not all's wrong with Meta's platforms, as recently it was reported that the company's microblogging platform, Threads added 20 million new sign-ups in December, taking the monthly active users total to 320 million.
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