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A leaked recording from an internal Facebook meeting has revealed CEO Mark Zuckerberg‘s “plan of attack” when it comes to competing with its hugely popular Chinese rival TikTok.
During two meetings in July, Zuckerberg fielded questions from employees about their concerns with the technology giant. The audio, which was leaked to The Verge, gave new details about how he plans to take on TikTok.
The video-sharing app has experienced rapid growth since launching in China in 2016, with TikTok developer ByteDance claiming to have around 500 million users around the world.
This is still relatively small compared to the 2.7 billion people who are estimated to use Facebook and its suite of apps that include Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp.
But the app’s popularity among teens led one employee to ask Zuckerberg to outline Facebook’s “plan of attack” to prevent it from haemorrhaging users to its Chinese competitor.
1/15 Facebook is born
On 4 Feb, 2004, 19-year-old Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launched a website called ‘TheFacebook’ from his dorm. Within 24 hours the college social network had more than 1,000 users
Wikimedia Commons
2/15 Winklevoss twins sue Zuckerberg
Within one week of launching, fellow Harvard students Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of stealing their idea. It would be four years later when the resulting lawsuit was finally settled
3/15 Open for business
The social network finally opened it platform to everyone on 26 September, 2006. The move proved the catalyst in supercharging the site’s already explosive growth
PA
4/15 Billion-dollar bid
Yahoo offered $1 billion to buy Facebook in September 2006 but Zuckerberg turned it down. ‘I don’t know what I could do with the money,’ Zuckerberg reportedly said. ‘I’d just start another social networking site’
Reuters
5/15 In the money
In September 2009, almost five years since the site launched, Facebook turned a profit for the first time
Getty Images/iStockphoto
6/15 Taking the lead
Facebook overtook MySpace in 2010 to become the world’s most popular social network
7/15 Taking on the tech giants
In 2011, Google launched its own social network that it hoped would knock Facebook from its perch. Despite its initial success, Google+ ultimately failed and will be shut down completely in 2019
Getty
8/15 Facebook goes public
On 18 May, 2012, Facebook went public. The initial public offering raised $16 billion – the third largest in US history
9/15 Gobbling up the competition
Facebook acquired Instagram in April 2012 for $1 billion, consolidating its position as the world’s leading social network
Reuters
10/15 One billion users
On 4 October, 2012, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook had hit 1 billion users. ‘If you’re reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honour of serving you,’ he wrote in a blog post
Getty Images
11/15 Expanding its empire
In February 2014 Facebook acquired the messaging app WhatsApp for $19.3 billion
REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
12/15 Two billion users
In June 2017, Facebook passed the 2 billion user milestone
REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
13/15 Privacy scandal
On 17 March 2018, news broke that UK firm Cambridge Analytica had harvested data from around 87 million Facebook users for the purpose of political profiling in the build up to the 2016 US presidential elections
Shutterstock
14/15 Record profits
Despite the scandals and subsequent #DeleteFacebook campaign, Facebook posted record profits just before its 15th anniversary, the equivalent of $7.37 from each of its 2.32 billions users
iStock/Independent
15/15 Unhappy users
A study found that people are happier when they don’t use Facebook, adding to mounting evidence surrounding the impact social media has on mental health
Rex Features
1/15 Facebook is born
On 4 Feb, 2004, 19-year-old Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launched a website called ‘TheFacebook’ from his dorm. Within 24 hours the college social network had more than 1,000 users
Wikimedia Commons
2/15 Winklevoss twins sue Zuckerberg
Within one week of launching, fellow Harvard students Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of stealing their idea. It would be four years later when the resulting lawsuit was finally settled
3/15 Open for business
The social network finally opened it platform to everyone on 26 September, 2006. The move proved the catalyst in supercharging the site’s already explosive growth
PA
4/15 Billion-dollar bid
Yahoo offered $1 billion to buy Facebook in September 2006 but Zuckerberg turned it down. ‘I don’t know what I could do with the money,’ Zuckerberg reportedly said. ‘I’d just start another social networking site’
Reuters
5/15 In the money
In September 2009, almost five years since the site launched, Facebook turned a profit for the first time
Getty Images/iStockphoto
6/15 Taking the lead
Facebook overtook MySpace in 2010 to become the world’s most popular social network
7/15 Taking on the tech giants
In 2011, Google launched its own social network that it hoped would knock Facebook from its perch. Despite its initial success, Google+ ultimately failed and will be shut down completely in 2019
Getty
8/15 Facebook goes public
On 18 May, 2012, Facebook went public. The initial public offering raised $16 billion – the third largest in US history
9/15 Gobbling up the competition
Facebook acquired Instagram in April 2012 for $1 billion, consolidating its position as the world’s leading social network
Reuters
10/15 One billion users
On 4 October, 2012, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook had hit 1 billion users. ‘If you’re reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honour of serving you,’ he wrote in a blog post
Getty Images
11/15 Expanding its empire
In February 2014 Facebook acquired the messaging app WhatsApp for $19.3 billion
REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
12/15 Two billion users
In June 2017, Facebook passed the 2 billion user milestone
REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
13/15 Privacy scandal
On 17 March 2018, news broke that UK firm Cambridge Analytica had harvested data from around 87 million Facebook users for the purpose of political profiling in the build up to the 2016 US presidential elections
Shutterstock
14/15 Record profits
Despite the scandals and subsequent #DeleteFacebook campaign, Facebook posted record profits just before its 15th anniversary, the equivalent of $7.37 from each of its 2.32 billions users
iStock/Independent
15/15 Unhappy users
A study found that people are happier when they don’t use Facebook, adding to mounting evidence surrounding the impact social media has on mental health
Rex Features
“I think it’s past Instagram now in India in terms of scale. So yeah, it’s a very interesting phenomenon,” Zuckerberg said.
“So we have a number of approaches that we’re going to take towards this, and we have a product called Lasso that’s a standalone app that we’re working on, trying to get product-market fit in countries like Mexico, is I think one of the first initial ones.”
Facebook introduced its Lasso earlier this year in Mexico, as it is one of the few countries where TikTok is yet to establish a presence.
Zuckerberg said the aim is to test out the app in Mexico before rolling it out to a global audience.
“I think we have time to learn and understand and get ahead of the trend. It is growing, but they’re spending a huge amount of money promoting it,” Zuckerberg said.
“What we’ve found is that their retention is actually not that strong after they stop advertising. So the space is still fairly nascent, and there’s time for us to kind of figure out what we want to do here. But I think this is a real thing. It’s good.”
Zuckerberg also addressed other challenges facing the company, including its controversial Libra cryptocurrency.
He explained why he refused to testify in some parts of the world to face questions from lawmakers and regulators about the new currency, saying: “It just doesn’t really make sense for me to go to hearings in every single country that wants to have me show up.”
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