In 2008, Facebook's chief executive wrote that "it is better to buy than compete." Facebook then bought Instagram for $1 billion and WhatsApp for $19 billion (announced), and the FTC let both deals through. In 2020 the FTC sued, saying Meta had bought its way to a monopoly. In November 2025, a federal judge ruled for Meta: counting TikTok and YouTube, Meta's share of U.S. time spent was about 30%. The court never decided whether the deals were anticompetitive, and the FTC has appealed. The full case file, from the public record: the deals, the messages, the market, the ruling and the appeal.
Meta's share of U.S. time spent, once the court counted TikTok and YouTube.
OPINION, 18 NOV 2025, P. 85Meta's share in the FTC's own, narrower market, 2012 to 2020, by the FTC's count. An allegation, about a different market.
FTC AMENDED COMPLAINT, SEP 2021, P. 65WhatsApp's announced price, after $1B for Instagram. The FTC let both deals through; the court never decided if they were anticompetitive.
COMPLAINT PP. 31, 39; OPINION PP. 20, 22What the record is. The messages are the FTC's quotations of Facebook documents in its 2021 amended complaint; the court did not rule on them. The 92% is the FTC's figure for its own, narrower market (2012 to 2020); the court's about 30% is for the market it found (U.S. time spent, six apps, 2022 and 2025 data), so the two are not a trend. The court decided only that Meta holds no monopoly power now. It never reached whether the deals were anticompetitive.
| Number | What it is | Where |
|---|---|---|
| $1B / $19B | Instagram (Apr 2012) and WhatsApp, the announced price (Feb 2014) | Am. complaint pp. 31, 39 |
| 92% | Meta's average share of time in the FTC's market, Sep 2012 to Dec 2020 (an allegation) | Am. complaint p. 65 |
| 17% / 7% | Share of U.S. Facebook / Instagram time spent on friends' content, Jan 2025 (Meta's data) | Opinion p. 8 |
| 58% to 72% | Rise in Instagram time when TikTok briefly went dark in the U.S., Jan 2025 | Opinion p. 51 |
| About 30% / 54% | Meta's share of U.S. time in the court's market; with YouTube left out | Opinion p. 85 |
| 75% | The Supreme Court has never found monopoly power below this, the opinion notes | Opinion p. 86 |
Open the documents above. Every number in the video points to its page.
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