Zuckerberg: Competition Pushes Facebook To Innovate

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s speech for the antitrust hearing before Congress on Wednesday (July 29) touts his company’s mission as one of connectivity, boosted by selling ads and debuting new services to connect to users, according to a transcript released by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Zuckerberg is one of four Big Tech CEOs expected to appear before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law Wednesday. Others include the heads of Amazon, Apple and Google. The hearing is expected to look at how those companies’ influence could stifle innovation and establish something close to a monopoly.

In the remarks, Zuckerberg praises the U.S. laws around antitrust that allow more competition. He says they’re “vital because it ensures that the playing field is level for all.”

“At Facebook, we compete hard because we’re up against other smart and innovative companies that are determined to win,” he says, according to the transcript. “We know that our future success is not guaranteed, especially in a global tech industry defined by rapid innovation. The history of technology is often the history of failure, and even industry-leading tech companies fail if they don’t stay competitive.”

Zuckerberg’s remarks push the innovations that have come with other affiliated applications like Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus, built through the “intense competitive pressures we face [that] push us to experiment with new ideas.”

“We know that if we don’t constantly keep improving, we will fall behind,” he says.

He also pushes the social good Facebook’s products have done, including the Safety Check tool to let people know their loved ones are safe, and the nonprofit No Kid Hungry, used to help raise millions of dollars to feed hungry children across the U.S.

Zuckerberg says he understands the concerns people have about privacy and the size of companies like his own, according to the transcript. But he says he’s called for regulators to take a more active role in updating the internet’s rules to preserve what’s good about the internet and adds that Facebook has taken precautions in protecting people from harmful content and false information.

According to the transcript, Zuckerberg concludes by saying Facebook is ready to exist in a landscape of competitors, explaining: “Many large companies that fail to compete cease to exist.”