Mark Zuckerberg tries to explain how Meta missed TikTok
During an all-hands-on meeting yesterday, Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, explained how the company managed to miss out on TikTok. The social media company didn’t see TikTok as the same kind of social network that it runs over on Facebook and Instagram.
Responding to a question from a member of staff, who quizzed the CEO over the company’s focus on artificial intelligence will cause them to miss the next big trend. Zuckerberg’s company has earmarked $65 billion in AI spending for 2025, as it scrambles to catch up to the competition.
Zuckerberg answered that the company was “too dismissive up front” about how things had changed. Meta’s worldview on social media pertains more to the classic style, with posts made by friends and family driving interaction and usage of the platform.
In recent years, and especially through TikTok, sharing content made by others privately in direct messages has become the new norm. It’s part of how TikTok – and by extension, Instagram Reels – has skyrocketed in popularity amongst social media users.
“… it wasn’t just about people commenting in the feed. It was about people seeing stuff in their feed and then sharing it into message threads.” He also added that this is where “the majority of social interaction is happening.”
Zuckerberg insists Meta AI investment won’t cause it to miss next trend
However, Zuckerberg seemed to be more focused on what AI can bring to the table for Instagram and Facebook. He did acknowledge that TikTok is a major competitor, but swung heavily back into AI talk by claiming that the next trend will be “things that either AI can produce”. An example he gave was an “AI agent” that will drive engagement with its platforms by letting you “just start talking to it.”
Zuckerberg’s AI push has been panned by some, as the platforms Meta owns, especially Facebook, become inundated with “AI slop”. A recent report showed that Zuckerberg himself had liked an AI-generated image, despite heavy criticism that Facebook is overrun with it.
Scrapped plans for Instagram and Facebook to start including AI users recently surfaced, as fake Meta-created users were spotted before the company got out in front of it.
The audio was leaked and obtained by Business Insider, which Zuckerberg fretted about before diving into the Q&A. He’s quoted as saying, “We try to be really open, and then everything I say leaks. It sucks.”
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