Meta is still grappling with its struggle to keep Facebook relevant, despite efforts to revive it. In a series of emails from 2022 shared during the company’s antitrust trial, CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed concerns about Facebook’s “Friends” structure and format being outdated.
Zuckerberg expressed worries that Facebook’s cultural relevance is decreasing quickly, and he believes the platform needs to refresh its graph structure to regain cultural relevance. He also considered ditching the Friends format and even proposed deleting everyone’s friends and having them start again, but acknowledged this would require building out an experiment and testing it in a smaller country.
The company is exploring ways to boost Facebook’s success, including revamping the Friends tab recently launched. Zuckerberg stated that every other major platform focuses on “Following” instead of “Friending,” which he believes may be the reason for Facebook’s outdated format. He suggested adopting following as the primary feature and even proposed getting rid of the concept of liking pages.
The struggle to keep Facebook relevant is a pressing concern for Meta, with Zuckerberg emphasizing the need for the company to succeed in the way it needs if Facebook falters. The company will continue to navigate this challenge amid the antitrust trial.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/20/uncovered-emails-showed-how-meta-struggled-to-keep-facebook-culturally-relevant