What if Mark Zuckerberg had not bought Instagram and WhatsApp?

Meta’s antitrust trial, in which the government contends the company killed competition by buying young rivals, hinges on unknowable alternate versions of Silicon Valley history. — VINCENT KILBRIDE/The New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO: In 2012, when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg cut a US$1bil cheque to buy the photo-sharing app Instagram, most people thought he had lost his marbles.

“A billion dollars of money?” joked Jon Stewart, then host of The Daily Show. “For a thing that kind of ruins your pictures?”