Mark Zuckerberg predicted the end of Facebook 7 years ago, the $1.5 trillion corporation could go into Microsoft’s rut when it had to sell Instagram

Similar to when he was laughed at for buying Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion and then the whole world had to tip his hat in admiration, CEO Mark Zuckerberg continued to prove his vision when predicting the fate of Meta from 2018.

In a confidential email from 2018 submitted by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as evidence on April 15, 2025, Mark Zuckerberg personally admitted to considering separating Instagram from Meta (Facebook), thereby predicting the end of Microsoft’s collapse when it was separated due to antitrust laws.

“As calls for the separation of big tech companies grow, there is a good chance that we will be forced to separate Instagram and perhaps WhatsApp in the next five to 10 years. Even if we want to keep apps together, it’s hard to do,” Zuckerberg’s email shows.

The FTC is currently pursuing a lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg and Meta, arguing that the social media conglomerate is an illegal monopoly that seeks to spin up the $1.5 trillion tech giant.

The FTC, in a move to continuously crack down on BigTech, from Amazon, Google to Apple, has begun to target Facebook. This agency accused Meta of sabotaging competition by acquiring rivals Instagram and WhatsApp in 2012-2014 for $1 billion and $19 billion, respectively, thereby asking the Court to cancel the agreements that were recognized by the authorities 13 years ago.

Going back to email evidence in 2018, Instagram generated about $11.3 billion in ad revenue. This is the year marking the beginning of this application becoming an important source of revenue for Meta.

At the same time, the huge revenue from Instagram also made many people silent when in 2012, many investors and the media laughed at Mark Zuckerberg for spending $1 billion to buy an anonymous photo editing application.

According to the emails, Mark Zuckerberg has been weighing whether and how to reorganize the company after two successful acquisitions. The board of directors also debated whether Instagram’s growth could have caused the “network collapse” of the more profitable Facebook platform at the time.

At this point, some argue that the rise of Instagram will attract young people to switch from Facebook to the new platform, damaging the world’s largest social network.

“Due to concerns about these impacts, we have reduced promotions from Facebook to Instagram,” Mark Zuckerberg wrote in the email.

The fact that Facebook has to shoulder the responsibility of helping Instagram grow but is also wary of the new social network usurping the throne has made it difficult for the company to manage.

This prompted Mark Zuckerberg to wonder if “we should consider the extreme step of separating Instagram into a separate company”.

The emails show Mark Zuckerberg acknowledging that the separation of Instagram could help accomplish “a number of important goals,” including making teams less dependent on each other as they build the app and “immediately artificially stopping Instagram development in a way that weakens Facebook networks.”

This will also help retain Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom to ensure the new platform does its best work.

However, Mr. Systrom left the group in September 2018 after Facebook asserted greater control over Instagram.

“While most companies oppose a split, history shows that most corporations actually do better after a split,” Mark Zuckerberg said in a 2018 email.

*Source: FT