The Vergecast Inside the Meta monopoly trial
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May 27, 2025 
Lauren Feiner, a reporter at The Verge covering the Meta antitrust trial, shares her insights from the courtroom, highlighting the intricate dynamics of competition and user engagement between Meta, Instagram, and TikTok. Victoria Song discusses her hands-on experience with Google's smart glasses prototypes, revealing how they differ from offerings by Meta and Apple. The podcast also tackles the implications of Mozilla's Pocket shutting down, recommending several alternatives for readers seeking new tools to organize their content.
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WhatsApp's Surprising Threat to Facebook
- WhatsApp was an unexpected global messaging success with no grand ambitions beyond simple communication.
- Facebook saw WhatsApp's growth as a serious threat even without traditional social network features.
Facebook’s Dual Identity Revealed
- Facebook’s idea of its own identity remains rooted in friends and family connections.
- However, much current user activity centers on engagement with algorithmically recommended content, diverging from original social intent.
TikTok’s Role as Competitor
- TikTok is a major competitor for user attention but operates differently from Facebook’s social graph model.
- The argument is these platforms serve distinct user intents, but both compete fiercely for time spent on device.
