The Leadership Letter

Real correspondence from the people running real companies — and what it reveals about leadership.

Deny Competitors Fuel From Your Platform

When a small revenue line helps a rival build a business that could replace you, the trade isn't close.

To confirm the policy: We will reject ads for the competitive Google products + WeChat, Kakao and Line. We'll revisit additions to the list as new potential competitive threats are surfaced.

Mark Zuckerberg, Jan 10, 2013 1:28 AM: I think we should block WeChat, Kakao and Line ads. Those companies are trying to build social networks and replace us. The revenue is immaterial to us compared to any risk. And I agree we should use ads to promote our own products, but I'd still block companies that compete with our core from gaining any advantage from us. I'd also keep blocking Google but otherwise wouldn't extend the block to anyone else.

Javier Olivan, Jan 9, 2013: I would block products that, if successful, could replace our core functionality & engagement / jeopardize our complete existence… I am definitively worried about mobile messengers with scale — which as opposed to G+/Path have huge retention, are already extremely successful and evolving into full SSNs… and are literally one step away from having a full newsfeed.

Dan Rose, Jan 9, 2013: FYI, we're going to continue blocking messenger apps from accessing friends.get, even if we don't block them from running ads.

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Court Exhibit
FTC v. Meta Platforms, Inc.
1:20-cv-03590 (DCD), Doc. 379-35, filed 2024-09-20
January 10, 2013
Public domain
View the primary source →