In a gripping courtroom saga in Washington, DC, Mark Zuckerberg made a bold claim that is sure to send shockwaves through the tech world—he is still proud of his $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp in 2014 and would do it all over again.

As the CEO of Meta took the stand, he faced intense scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission amid an antitrust lawsuit aimed at unraveling his company's high-profile acquisitions, including WhatsApp and Instagram. Over three days and 13 hours of questioning, Zuckerberg sought to debunk the notion that his motivation behind these buys was simply to eliminate competition.

The FTC's argument suggests Zuckerberg acquired WhatsApp out of fear that it might evolve into a formidable social media competitor. Despite acknowledging that he pondered this possibility, Zuckerberg emphasized that after meeting with WhatsApp's founders, he considered it implausible for the app to rival Facebook.

Zuckerberg recounted how he encouraged WhatsApp's founders, Jan Koum and Brian Acton, to incorporate more social features, arguing that their initial disdain for advertising could be transformed to enhance user experience. Internal emails revealed Zuckerberg's skepticism about Koum's ambitions, suggesting WhatsApp was initially not even aiming to expand productively.

Zuckerberg credited WhatsApp's meteoric rise to changing communication trends, where private messaging was overtaking public sharing on platforms like Facebook. He saw WhatsApp as an asset that would allow Facebook to adapt to this shift and even gain leverage against tech giants like Apple and Google in the app distribution arena.

With WhatsApp now boasting nearly 3 billion users and generating a staggering $10 billion annually in advertising revenue from Meta's platforms, Zuckerberg's investment appears to have far surpassed initial projections. An internal estimate from the time predicted just 2 billion users by 2024.

When it came to Instagram, which posed a direct threat to Facebook, Zuckerberg claimed he only began to worry about its growing user base after it reached 1 billion. To curb any potential user drain from Facebook to Instagram, he directed the Instagram team to decrease their reliance on Facebook's integration for traffic. This decision reportedly did not sit well with Instagram's co-founders, leading to their eventual departures.

Zuckerberg praised the resources and support he provided Instagram in its early days, arguing that the app's success would have been unlikely without Meta's backing. He had forecasted Instagram would hit 100 million users, but it has since exploded to over 2 billion.

In a revealing moment during the trial, former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg was questioned about an email she sent to Zuckerberg, expressing concern that they had overpaid for Instagram. Her testimony offered a candid reflection on hindsight: "I think I was wrong. Like, very wrong."

As Zuckerberg's testimony drew to a close, he painted a picture of WhatsApp and Instagram as triumphs of investment and innovation, rather than the monopolistic maneuvers the FTC claims they were.