WhatsApp Had No Plans to Compete With Facebook, Co-Founder Says
WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton said that his messaging company had no plans to build social networking features to compete with Facebook before he sold the company to Mark Zuckerberg, a claim that bolsters Meta's defense as it faces federal antitrust allegations.
'We had no ambition to build Facebook-like functionality like a feed or any Facebook-like features,' Acton said Tuesday during testimony at a federal courthouse in Washington. He also said that WhatsApp could have stuck with a subscription business instead of selling targeted ads if the service had remained independent.
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