Inside the Meta monopoly trial
Meta has a well-earned reputation as the fastest follower in tech. Did your startup launch a cool feature that people like? Before you can say "Series B," Meta will have built something eerily similar, embedded into its vastly more popular platforms, and eaten your lunch. This probably isn't how CEO Mark Zuckerberg would like to […]
Meta has a well-earned reputation as the fastest follower in tech. Did your startup launch a cool feature that people like? Before you can say "Series B," Meta will have built something eerily similar, embedded into its vastly more popular platforms, and eaten your lunch. This probably isn't how CEO Mark Zuckerberg would like to see his empire, but it's genuinely an asset; few companies have done as good a job of identifying and jumping on trends.
Sometimes, jumping on trends means spending billions to acquire Instagram and WhatsApp. And sometimes that lands you in an antitrust trial against the FTC. Over the last several weeks, in a courtroom in DC, executives and experts have been asked whether Meta bought those companies and helped them achieve greatness, or bought them to prevent them from doing so. Which argument Judge James Boasberg ultimately believes will have huge ramifications for the whole industry.
On this episode of The Vergecast, The Verge's Lauren Feiner takes us through what we've learned so far in the trial. (Lauren has been in the courthouse for virtually every day of testimony - we finally caught her on a day off.) She explains why WhatsApp is such a tric …
