Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the witness stand on Monday, the first day of a landmark competition trial brought against the tech company by the Federal Trade Commission.

The 40 year-old tech exec was questioned in a Washington, D.C. courtroom, where he rejected the FTC’s allegations that Meta sought to unlawfully stamp out market competition through the respective 2012 and 2014 acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.

The FTC alleges that Meta now operates an illegal monopoly over apps for sharing content with friends and family, a position it secured in part due to the acquisitions.

The FTC has pointed to internal communications from the company, dating back to 2008, in which Zuckerberg suggested it would be easier to buy out competitors rather than go head-to-head with them. 

At the time of the deals, Instagram, acquired for $1 billion, had about 30 million users, while WhatsApp, bought for $19 billion, had around 450 million; those numbers have since ballooned and both platforms have grown faster than Facebook, Meta’s flagship platform, according to The New York Times. 

Should the FTC be successful in court, Meta could be forced to divest Instagram and WhatsApp, threatening the company’s dominance in social media. Spinning off one or both services could result in the loss of billions of dollars in ad spend, as ADWEEK previously reported.

A critical element of the FTC’s case is its narrowly defined market. In U.S. antitrust enforcement, a relevant market is determined in order to identify the set of products or services and geographic region in which a given company competes. This helps establish whether the company in question holds monopoly power.

In the FTC’s case against Meta, only Snapchat and a small social network called MeWe are included in the relevant market, parameters that may portray Meta as having outsized control of the market by blotting out other social platforms including TikTok, X, and YouTube. 

Zuckerberg took direct aim at the market definition determined by the FTC in his testimony. He downplayed the role of friend-to-friend sharing on Meta platforms, stating that content from friends now makes up just 20% of what users see on Facebook and about 10% of what they see on Instagram. The sites, he said, now serve primarily as a “broad discovery and entertainment space.”

To evidence the shifting shape of the social media landscape, Zuckerberg pointed to a 2018 decision by the company to highlight content from users’ real friends and family rather than other user-generated content, noting that this effort flopped amid users’ growing demands for content from sources outside of their real-world networks.

Meta’s legal team has argued that the relevant market in the case should be far more broad, as Meta platforms compete against other social giants like TikTok, YouTube, and X. 

Meta’s defense is being led by Mark Hansen, a partner at Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick. Hansen, in his opening remarks on Monday, said the FTC’s arguments are “at war with the facts and at war with the law.”

Even if it prevails, the FTC must prove that splitting up Meta would meaningfully boost competition.

The case will be decided by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg. The culmination of a crackdown on Big Tech undertaken during Donald Trump’s first presidential administration, the trial is expected to stretch on for up to two months.  

Duolingo and its unhinged green mascot, Duo, is a quintessential TikTok marketing success. But against the backdrop of a potential U.S. ban or sale of the app, the language learning app has been finding its feet on YouTube Shorts.

Duolingo’s chief marketing officer (CMO) Manu Orssaud told ADWEEK the brand’s experiments on YouTube’s TikTok competitor have resulted in a 430% year-on-year boost in views.

In the first quarter of 2025 alone, Duolingo saw 300 million impressions on YouTube Shorts.

TikTok is where the language learning app “invented” its brand, said Orssaud. Since 2021, it has garnered 17 million followers and 444.7 million likes through organic content that taps into trending moments, like Netflix’s Squid Games launch or spoofing the bizarre morning routine of influencer Ashton Hall.

The CMO said TikTok is still “king” for short-form video. However, as the social ecosystem evolves, Duolingo has been diversifying its estimated $90 million marketing budget to reach audiences on other platforms—and YouTube Shorts has stood out as a particular success.

Sitcoms, spoofs, and short-form wins

Duolingo isn’t alone in testing the YouTube Shorts waters.

With 2 billion monthly active users at its latest count, the platform is quickly becoming a brand go-to for short-form content as TikTok’s fate in the U.S. hangs in the balance once more, thanks to another extension from President Trump.

Duolingo’s journey on YouTube Shorts started in 2023, before the Supreme Court’s TikTok ruling, with the launch of a Full House-esque sitcom, Living With Lily.

The series centers on the brand’s alternative purple-haried “emo mascot” and her inexplicably human parents, who live in “suburban hell.” Each episode is no more than one minute long.

Living With Lily’s first 10-episode run brought in 10.5 million views and 100,000 new YouTube followers.

“It worked well for us, so we kept going,” explained Zaria Parvez, Duolingo’s global senior social media manager. Once news of the ban broke, “the team was already set up there,” she said.

“I always joke that I love to work in the shadows and on the periphery; that’s how TikTok started for us,” she said. “Now I feel that space [for me] is YouTube. Its been our experimental channel.”

She added that original content has driven strong performance, noting that YouTube’s algorithm probably isn’t as “customized or as strong” yet as TikTok’s famous For You Page (FYP), which offers audiences a highly curated experience as soon as they open the app.

“That sort of works to the benefit of brands, because there’s just more space for people to learn, and they’re willing to learn and escape their own algorithms,” she said.

A long-form leap

Despite its TikTok success, Duolingo doesn’t market through a one-channel lens, Orssaud said.

“We try to create stories and distribute them across channels, and then use that as an experimentation ground to see what sticks across different channels, and then iterate from that,” he added.

Despite the uncertainty, YouTube still has some way to go to dethrone TikTok. The latest forecast from market research firm Emarketer puts the latter’s projected U.S. ad revenue for 2025 at $14.8 billion, well above YouTube’s anticipated $9.9 billion.

In 2024, U.S. TikTok users spent most of their time on the app (55%) watching short-form content, per intelligence firm Sensor Tower. Meanwhile, YouTube Shorts captured 26% of people’s time within the overall YouTube ecosystem.

It’s not all about short-form, anyway. As Duolingo looks to grow its 116 million monthly user base, it wants to diversify into more longer-form content on YouTube.

Orssaud believes longer videos can help “add more depth” to the stories the company tells. It’s already run some experiments, including hosting a eulogy read by CEO Luis von Ahn’s for Duo as part of a stunt that saw the mascot killed off in February.

Parvez added: “The next step with YouTube is figuring out what can make for bigger, longer pieces, versus what stays short-form. Also, how can we push narratives that we might not have been able to push with TikTok, which is so trend-dependent?”

U.S.-based TikTok ecommerce global governance and experience team staffers were recently laid off. This is the latest restructuring to afflict the social media company, which underwent a round of layoffs affecting its trust and security team in February.

According to Business Insider, the global governance and experience team monitors product listings, seller compliance, and protecting intellectual property in TikTok Shop.

The number of staffers laid off is currently unknown, but this latest move comes as the unit’s performance comes under closer scrutiny. In February, TikTok’s ecommerce head, Bob Kang, highlighted the team’s shortcomings during an all-hands meeting. 

It’s been reported that some staffers within the department were hit with low scores during annual performance reviews and given performance improvement plans, while some were simply let go.

In addition to the layoffs, several senior members of TikTok’s executive team have left the company in recent months, including global business solutions head Blake Chandlee, head of partnership solutions and global business marketing for Europe Lucy Banks, global head of music business development Ole Obermann, global head of litigation Emily Stubbs, U.S. general manager of agency business Jack Bamberger, and head of ad sales for North America Sameer Singh.

TikTok is facing challenging times in the U.S. market. It still has not found a buyer for its U.S. operations, leading President Donald Trump to declare a 75-day extension.

In addition, its parent company, ByteDance, is a China-based company caught up in the tariff wars between the two countries, which could further complicate TikTok’s divesture.

In the final days before the looming April 5 deadline, a flurry of high-profile suitors has entered the race to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations. Among the latest to join the bidding war are Applovin, Amazon, Oracle, Blackstone, and Andreessen Horowitz, all competing for control of the short-form video app, which boasts 170 million American users.

TikTok faces mounting pressure to secure a deal or risk a U.S. ban over national security concerns. The geopolitically charged negotiations, requiring Beijing’s approval, are also unfolding as President Donald Trump unveils new tariff plans.

Meanwhile, Trump reportedly met with top White House officials on April 2 to review strategies aimed at averting a TikTok ban and discuss a proposal that could secure the app’s future in the U.S.

“It does not feel like these are serious bids for TikTok. It is hard to imagine any of these companies, like Amazon and Oracle, successfully operating just a piece of TikTok,” said David Arslanian, managing director of Progress Partners. “The most logical outcome is to give everyone more time. But logical is not part of the current playbook. With tariffs set to be enacted today, I would guess that this becomes another bargaining chip.”

As the long national saga for TikTok continues, here’s a look at all the players who have thrown their hats in the ring this week. ADWEEK has reached out to all the companies for comment.

AppLovin

Mobile technology company AppLovin has made a bid for TikTok, reportedly with backing from casino mogul Steve Wynn, according to The Wall Street Journal. Its pitch: AppLovin is positioning itself as a solution to national security concerns while promising to fuel economic growth and job creation, a person familiar with the matter told the publication.

Amazon

The e-commerce giant made a last-minute offer for TikTok, The New York Times reported. However, the bid—submitted via a letter to Vice President JD Vance—isn’t being taken seriously by key stakeholders involved in the negotiations, according to NYT.

“Amazon’s reported bid is proof of TikTok’s prowess in ecommerce and the changing nature of how consumers shop and buy,” Jasmine Enberg, vp of content at Emarketer, told ADWEEK in a statement.

The retail giant has struggled to make inroads into social and creator-led shopping with 46% of U.S. TikTok users now purchasing on the social platform, per Emarketer.

“The acquisition could strengthen Amazon’s position, particularly among younger shoppers who start and end their shopping journeys on TikTok or other social platforms,” Enberg said.

VC firm Andreessen Horowitz

Venture capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz, led by Silicon Valley exec and Trump supporter Marc Andreessen, is in talks to inject fresh capital into a bid that would carve TikTok out of its Chinese parent, ByteDance, per the Financial Times.

This isn’t an unusual play for Andreessen Horowitz, which has previously backed social media companies, including early investments in Facebook and Instagram. The firm also put $400 million into Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter (now X).

Private equity firm Blackstone

Private equity giant Blackstone is evaluating a potential minority investment in TikTok, Reuters reported. The firm is in talks to join ByteDance’s existing non-Chinese shareholders—led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic—in contributing fresh capital for a bid on TikTok’s U.S. operations.

Oracle

Oracle is also among the companies looking to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations in a high-stakes race. Its involvement, per Bloomberg, would include providing security guarantees and taking a minority stake in a newly formed American entity.

However, the deal could still leave TikTok’s prized algorithm under Chinese ownership, a key sticking point in the ongoing negotiations.

While Oracle has the data chops to take on TikTok, the company shut down its ad business last year, raising questions about how it would handle TikTok’s lucrative advertising model, ADWEEK previously reported. To that, the culture clash between a corporate B2B firm and a fast-moving social media platform could pose significant operational challenges.

The live shopping experience is moving from linear to streaming, as QVC Group is launching a 24/7 live shopping stream on TikTok beginning Wednesday.

Despite TikTok’s uncertain future in the U.S., the platform has become a social media force, and brands are eager to be part of its ecosystem.

By integrating with TikTok Shop, known for its vast audience and shopping discovery, this new live 24/7 shopping stream will feature QVC Group’s brands (including QVC and HSN), products, and talent on the social media platform, creating an always on-shopping experience.

“We are uniquely suited to bring our large-scale, high-volume, live social shopping experience to TikTok, an extremely popular platform with over 170 million users,” said David Rawlinson II, president and CEO of QVC Group, in a statement. 

The 24/7 live social shopping experience will also feature original QVC and HSN content created just for TikTok.

“We are excited to share our powerhouse lineup of celebrities, hosts, brands, and products in this interactive format,” Rawlinson added. “Our agreement will be a catalyst to transform shopping and discovery not only for QVC Group and TikTok Shop, but also for social shopping at large.”

“QVC and HSN hosts have mastered live shopping moments for decades, and we’re thrilled to bring this entertaining shopping experience to TikTok’s community,” said Nico Le Bourgeois, head of U.S. operations for TikTok Shop, in a statement.

QVC has been on TikTok Shop since August 2024, and over 74,000 creators have featured QVC items in their shoppable videos and livestreams on the application. 

X, formerly Twitter, has been acquired by xAI, Elon Musk’s public-benefit AI corporation and the maker of AI chatbot Grok. 

Musk, who bought the social platform in 2022, announced the deal in a post on X Friday afternoon. “xAI has acquired X in an all-stock transaction,” the billionaire wrote. 

Musk claimed that the transaction will value xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion—or $45 billion minus $12 billion in debt.

He added in his post: “xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent.”

@xAI has acquired @X in an all-stock transaction. The combination values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt).

Since its founding two years ago, xAI has rapidly become one of the leading AI labs in the world, building models and data centers at…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 28, 2025

Since Musk’s 2022 acquisition of X, then Twitter, for $44 billion, the platform’s valuation has declined by a staggering 72%, per December estimates from Fidelity—thanks in part to an advertiser exodus and dramatic platform changes including content moderation rollbacks. 

XAI was launched by Musk in 2023, and in December closed a Series C funding round, which it says helped it secure $6 billion.

LinkedIn has appointed R/GA as global strategic creative agency for LinkedIn Ads following a competitive pitch process, ADWEEK has learned.

“We’re proud to collaborate with such an iconic brand and look forward to delivering impactful work together in 2025,” an R/GA spokesperson said.

A LinkedIn spokesperson also acknowledged the partnership but declined to share additional details.

R/GA and LinkedIn declined to share whether the former replaces an incumbent agency or if LinkedIn Ads will continue to work with other creative partners.

The win comes shortly after R/GA transitioned to independent ownership earlier this month after more than two decades under Interpublic Group (IPG). The agency was acquired by private equity firm Truelink Capital, which has committed at least $50 million to an innovation fund aimed at expanding R/GA’s capabilities in AI, emerging technology, and product development.

R/GA has been shifting its focus to technology-driven creativity, blending brand storytelling with performance marketing—an approach that could be valuable for LinkedIn as it grows evolving its ads business.

The platform has been rolling out AI-powered ad tools like Predictive Audiences, which enhances targeting through a mix of AI and manual inputs, and Accelerate Campaigns, which automates campaign creation by analyzing an advertiser’s website and LinkedIn page.

While R/GA and LinkedIn have yet to share specific details on upcoming work, sources close to the matter indicate that the agency will be developing a new global creative strategy for LinkedIn Ads, with campaigns expected to roll out later this year.

Former WTIC reporter Matt Caron has posted a video to social media called Breaking News in a Broken Newsroom, after being let go from Tegna’s Hartford Fox affiliate in February.

In what was part rallying cry, part horror story and part reminder of what journalism is supposed to be, Caron’s video, which at this writing has over ten thousand views on Facebook, said that our founding fathers knew journalists were as essential as an armed militia to safeguard democracy.

Caron tells us the industry is adrift and the only thing that will save it is to return to good old fashioned journalism, which seems to run counter to corporations’ desires to increase profits for shareholders.

In the video, Caron talked about the impersonal nature of his layoff and said he wouldn’t muzzle himself to take a pay out from an industry that was supposed to be about speaking truth to power.

“The same company that is in the business of free speech, then offered me severance in exchange for my silence and waving legal claims,” he wrote. “I will not sign it. As a union steward, I represented my colleagues in the grievance process and enforced our collective bargaining agreement.”

“I couldn’t even explain to my family why I was let go because I never got an explanation,” he said in the video. ” I wasn’t terminated for cause my personnel file had no disciplinary history whatsoever. My performance evaluations have always met or exceeded expectations. I am a team player mentor leader, but after nearly 8 years of service to my community station, our brand good ethical journalism I was terminated by a guy who didn’t even know me. “

Below is the caption to his video. Click here to see the entire 12 minute video.

BREAKING NEWS IN A BROKEN NEWSROOM: Following major restructuring and management overreach that violated our union contract, I was sent into unemployment. Without cause or notice, a two sentence clause in my employment agreement was leveraged against me. The same company that is in the business of free speech, then offered me severance in exchange for my silence and waving legal claims. I will not sign it. As a union steward, I represented my colleagues in the grievance process and enforced our collective bargaining agreement. Despite zero disciplinary history, great performance reviews, and 8 years of service to my Connecticut community and the tenents of ethical journalism, I am now trying to find a way to continue to support my two young boys and family. Thank you to everyone who has reached out during this difficult time. Thank you to everyone who has trusted me to tell your story. I’m on the sideline but not out of the game. Stay in touch…and stay tuned! #hireajournalist #opentowork #journalism #LeadershipMatters #tvnews #media #ethicsmatter #Truth #TransparencyMatters

Matt Caron/Facebook