{"id":19323,"date":"2025-04-14T19:12:44","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T19:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/what-if-mark-zuckerberg-had-not-bought-instagram-and-whatsapp\/"},"modified":"2025-04-14T19:12:44","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T19:12:44","slug":"what-if-mark-zuckerberg-had-not-bought-instagram-and-whatsapp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/what-if-mark-zuckerberg-had-not-bought-instagram-and-whatsapp\/","title":{"rendered":"What If Mark Zuckerberg Had Not Bought Instagram and WhatsApp?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In 2012, when Facebook\u2019s chief executive, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/30\/technology\/mark-zuckerberg-meta-trump.html\" title=\"\">Mark Zuckerberg<\/a>, cut a $1 billion check to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.nytimes.com\/dealbook.nytimes.com\/2012\/04\/09\/facebook-buys-instagram-for-1-billion\/\" title=\"\">buy the photo-sharing app Instagram<\/a>, most people thought he had lost his marbles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cA billion dollars of money?\u201d <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/erikkain\/2012\/04\/11\/jon-stewart-on-facebooks-billion-dollar-instagram-purchase-really-lame\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">joked<\/a> Jon Stewart, then the host of \u201cThe Daily Show.\u201d \u201cFor a thing that kind of ruins your pictures?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Stewart called the decision \u201creally lame.\u201d His audience \u2014 and much of the rest of the world \u2014 agreed that Mr. Zuckerberg had overpaid for an app that highlighted a bunch of photo filters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Two years later, Mr. Zuckerberg opened his wallet again when <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.nytimes.com\/dealbook.nytimes.com\/2014\/02\/19\/facebook-to-buy-messaging-start-up\/\" title=\"\">Facebook agreed to buy WhatsApp<\/a> for $19 billion. Many Americans had never heard of the messaging app, which was popular internationally but not well known in the United States.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">No one knew how these deals would turn out. But hindsight, it seems, is 20\/20.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Monday, the government <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/14\/technology\/meta-antitrust-trial-ftc.html\" title=\"\">argued<\/a> in <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/13\/technology\/meta-ftc-trial-whatsapp-instagram.html\" title=\"\">a landmark antitrust trial<\/a> that both acquisitions \u2014 now considered among the greatest in Silicon Valley history \u2014 were the actions of a monopolist guarding his turf. Mr. Zuckerberg, in turn, was set to contend that were it not for these deals, his company \u2014 which has been <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/28\/technology\/facebook-meta-name-change.html\" title=\"\">renamed Meta<\/a> \u2014 would just be an afterthought in the social media landscape.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the case, which could bring about the breakup of one of tech\u2019s most powerful companies, largely deals in hypotheticals. Neither the government nor Mr. Zuckerberg could have predicted how technology would progress since his $1 billion check for Instagram, or what would have happened if regulators had not approved the purchases. That makes Meta\u2019s antitrust case one of the most slippery in a tech industry that has long been defined by unpredictability.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt was a very, very different time in Silicon Valley,\u201d said Margaret O\u2019Mara, a tech historian at the University of Washington, about Facebook\u2019s acquisitions. \u201cThere was a vibe of \u2018Oh, wow, Facebook really is just a bunch of kids spending extravagantly!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">I happened to have a front-row seat into Facebook\u2019s deal-making at the time, especially with Instagram. As a reporter for Wired Magazine, I had an office next to Instagram\u2019s headquarters in San Francisco. I frequented the kimchi burrito place across the street near South Park Commons \u2014 a slice of green in the city \u2014 and ate on a bench outside Instagram\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/09\/24\/technology\/instagram-cofounders-resign.html\" title=\"\">Kevin Systrom<\/a>, Instagram\u2019s 6-foot-5 co-founder, was 28. He often walked laps around the wood-and-iron swing set in South Park Commons while taking calls or talking product ideas with employees. Jack Dorsey, a co-founder of Twitter who identified as more of an art kid than a techie, also hung out at the same South Park playground and mused to friends about ideas that eventually became his social media app.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">This was still the era when social apps were dismissed as playthings, for posting latte art or telling people what you were having for breakfast. WhatsApp, which was growing quickly internationally, was a text-messaging app without a business model. And clones of these apps were plentiful, such as Color, Flickr and VSCO in photo sharing, and Kik, Skype and Viber in messaging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Even Facebook faced questions then about whether it was a viable business. Two months after the Silicon Valley company announced that it was buying Instagram, it held one of the most <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2012\/may\/24\/facebook-ipo-mark-zuckerberg-nasdaq\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">disastrous tech initial public offerings<\/a> since the late-1990s dot-com era.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">By the time Mr. Systrom testified three months later to the California Department of Corporations \u2014 a condition of closing the deal with Facebook \u2014 shares of Facebook had fallen by nearly half from their I.P.O. price.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But in Silicon Valley, fortunes rise and fall quickly. Companies go from frivolous fancies to juggernauts in just a few years. And what may look like a shrewd business move by an executive one moment can be quickly ridiculed as a misstep the next. (Half of the aforementioned apps are dead, are dying or were sold for parts long ago. My favorite kimchi burrito place is also <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/sf.eater.com\/2023\/6\/29\/23778447\/san-francisco-hrd-coffee-shop-closure\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">no longer around<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At the time, Mr. Systrom gave a positive spin on the Instagram deal as the future looked increasingly grim for Facebook.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI\u2019ve been taught throughout my life that there\u2019s upside and downside in all public markets,\u201d he said at the California Department of Corporations hearing in August 2012, which I attended on the sixth floor of the department in downtown San Francisco. \u201cI still believe firmly in the long-term value of Facebook.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He turned out to be right. Today, Instagram and WhatsApp are two of the most important parts of Meta\u2019s business. Posts, videos and communications on the platforms regularly drive global conversations for sports, news, politics and culture. The apps have billions of users.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In some ways, the antitrust trial is about competing versions of what tech history could have been. What would have happened if, say, Mr. Zuckerberg had lost the bid for Instagram to Mr. Dorsey, who was <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.nytimes.com\/dealbook.nytimes.com\/2012\/12\/17\/before-facebook-deal-instagrams-talks-with-twitter\/\" title=\"\">also trying to buy the photo-sharing app<\/a> for Twitter? What if WhatsApp had sold to Google, which was <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theinformation.com\/articles\/google-s-unusual-offer-to-whatsapp?rc=fiplau\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">champing at the bit<\/a> to add the messaging app to its own portfolio?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">What if other competitors had created superior photo-sharing apps that could have thrived if Facebook hadn\u2019t used Instagram to crush them? And what if Facebook had screwed up both deals, or could not keep up with competing apps and fell behind even after buying Instagram and WhatsApp?<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">These are unknowable and can be answered only by someone with a time machine. Each side is arguing its version of what would have occurred if Meta\u2019s acquisitions had never been approved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On the same \u201cDaily Show\u201d segment from 2012, Jessica Williams, the senior youth correspondent, said \u2014 tongue fully in cheek \u2014 that Facebook\u2019s purchase of Instagram made perfect sense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cBefore Instagram, if I wanted my pictures to look like they were taken in the \u201960s, I\u2019d have to invent a time machine and travel back 50 years,\u201d she said. \u201cYou know how much a time machine would cost to build?<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cEasily a billion dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/14\/technology\/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-instagram-whatsapp.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2012, when Facebook\u2019s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, cut a $1 billion check to buy the photo-sharing app Instagram, most<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[451,1216,123,119,3071,120,6056,4265,130,450,121,124,118,6057,3006,1122,129],"class_list":["post-19323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-acquisitions-and-divestitures","tag-antitrust-laws-and-competition-issues","tag-computers-and-the-internet","tag-facebook-inc","tag-federal-trade-commission","tag-instagram-inc","tag-instant-messaging","tag-kevin","tag-mark-e","tag-mergers","tag-meta-platforms-inc","tag-mobile-applications","tag-social-media","tag-systrom","tag-text-messaging","tag-whatsapp-inc","tag-zuckerberg"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What If Mark Zuckerberg Had Not Bought Instagram and WhatsApp? - 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