Meta is currently in the middle of a highly-publicized antitrust case in which the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is trying to make a case for a breakup of the company. As part of its defense, Meta has decided to use a somewhat unexpected argument. It points to Apple and its News app as proof that it is not a monopoly.
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In its introductory presentation, the slides of which were published by The Verge, Meta compares the usage rates of its communication platform with other services. One key slide shows the weekly usage of various apps on iOS:
- Messages from Applu: 88,39% of devices
- Instagram: 48,19%
- Facebook Messenger: 37,55%
- WhatsApp: 36,76%
Meta is using this comparison to show that iPhone users use the native Messages app more often than any of its platforms, which it says is intended to prove that Meta does not have a dominant position in the area of everyday personal communication, as the FTC claims. The presentation also includes a quote from the director of product marketing Applu, Ronak Shah, who stated that "one of the basic purposes of the application iMessage is to allow people to communicate with those they know personally". In addition to AppIn its defense, Meta also mentions other competitors, such as TikTok, YouTube, and Snap.chatThe goal is to show that users have a wide range of alternatives available to them and that the social and communication market is far from being dominated by a single company.
Neither Meta nor any other company has a monopoly in the mentioned area because competitors are not prevented from releasing their own applications, which is what happens in practice (WhatsApp,WeChat,Facebook Messenger, iMessage,Telegram,Snapchat,QQ,Line,Discord,Zalo,Momo,Signal…..).
The only monopoly in this case is the law.onem established by the FTC that no one can compete with.