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Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the House Financial Services Committee on “An Examination of Facebook and Its Impact on the Financial Services and Housing Sectors” in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC on October 23, 2019.

MANDEL NGAN | AFP | Getty Images

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg failed to anticipate a newer trend in social networking that contributed to the success of rival TikTok.

In an interview published Wednesday in analyst Ben Thompson’s Statechery newsletter, the Facebook founder said he “sort of missed” a newer way that people “interact with discovered content” via social networking services. People are increasingly using their social networking “feeds” to discover compelling content as opposed to viewing the media shared by the friends that they follow, he explained.

Although people still interact with content that their friends share in their feeds, the overall social networking trend has “by and large shifted to you use your feed to discover content, you find things that are interesting, you send them to your friends in messages and you interact there,” Zuckerberg said.

“So in that world, it is actually somewhat less important who produces the content that you’re finding, you just want the best content,” the Facebook founder said. (Facebook changed its corporate name to Meta last year.)

Analysts have attributed TikTok’s rapid rise in popularity due to its algorithm, which can recommend compelling short videos to users based on their habits and viewing history. TikTok’s rise has posed a significant challenge to the company, which is experiencing a decline in North American Facebook users, and a stock price that’s lost more than 56% this year so far.

Zuckerberg referred to TikTok as a “very effective competitor” during the interview, and acknowledged that the company was somewhat slow to this because it didn’t fit my pattern of a social thing, it felt more like a shorter version of YouTube to me,” he said.

Zuckerberg also believes it’s important for Meta to develop AI that can recommend a range of content including photos and text to users besides just short videos.

“Sometimes I want to watch specifically videos, but a lot of the times I just want the best stuff,” he said.

Earlier this week, Meta debuted the Quest Pro virtual reality headset intended for VR enthusiasts as opposed to newcomers that will cost $1,500.  

Watch: Meta will attract more buyers because it’s at an attractive price.

Meta will attract more buyers because it's at an attractive price, says Aureus' Kari Firestone

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Chinese tech giant Tencent posts 13% revenue jump as growth at key gaming unit surges

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Chinese tech giant Tencent posts 13% revenue jump as growth at key gaming unit surges

Chinese tech company Tencent is a gaming giant and the parent company of WeChat, the ubiquitous social messaging app in China.

Cheng Xin | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Tencent on Wednesday reported an annual rise in its top and bottom line in the first quarter fuelled by accelerated growth in its key gaming business.

While revenue beat expectations, its net profit fell short.

Here’s how Tencent did in the first quarter of 2025 versus LSEG estimates:

  • Revenue: 180.02 billion Chinese yuan ($25 billion), versus 174.63 billion yuan expected
  • Net profit: 47.8 billion yuan, versus 52.2 billion yuan expected

Revenue rose 13% year-on-year, while net profit was up 14%.

This breaking news story is being updated.

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Sony shares rise about 2% in volatile trading following share buyback announcement

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Sony shares rise about 2% in volatile trading following share buyback announcement

A file photo of Hiroki Totoki, Sony Group Corporation executive, delivering a keynote address at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, on January 6, 2025. 

Artur Widak | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Sony Group shares rose about 2% Wednesday in volatile trading after the Japanese conglomerate announced a 250 billion yen ($1.7 billion) share buyback and operating income beat estimates.   

Operating income for the last three months of the financial year came in at 203.6 billion yen, beating mean analyst estimates of 192.2 billion yen, though it was down 11% from the same period last year. 

In the earnings report, the Japanese-based electronics, entertainment and finance company announced a stock buyback of shares worth 250 billion yen. 

Sony also provided details on a partial spinoff of its financial unit. The company plans to distribute slightly more than 80% of the shares of common stock of the spinoff to shareholders of Sony Group through dividends. 

The financial unit will list its financial operation this year and will be classified as a discontinued operation in Sony’s accounting from the current quarter, the company added. 

However, Sony’s outlook for the current financial year ending in March was lackluster.

The company forecasted its operating profit to rise a slight 0.3% to 1.28 trillion yen, after flagging a 100 billion yen hit from U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war.

Yet, Sony clarified that the estimated tariff impact did not reflect the trade deal made between the U.S. and China on May 12 and that the actual impact could vary significantly. 

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Samsung Electronics to acquire heating and cooling solutions provider FläktGroup for 1.5 billion euros

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Samsung Electronics to acquire heating and cooling solutions provider FläktGroup for 1.5 billion euros

A Samsung Group flag flutters in front of the company’s Seocho building in Seoul. 

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Samsung Electronics on Wednesday announced that it would acquire all shares of German-based FläktGroup, a leading heating and cooling solutions provider, for 1.5 billion euros ($1.68 billion) from European investment firm Triton. 

Samsung said the acquisition would help it expand in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning business as the market experiences rapid growth. 

“Our commitment is to continue investing in and developing the high-growth HVAC business as a key future growth engine,” said TM Roh, Acting Head of the Device eXperience (DX) Division at Samsung Electronics.  

The acquisition of FläktGroup stands to bolster Samsung’s position in the HVAC market against rivals such as LG Electronics. 

FläktGroup supplies heating, HVAC solutions to a wide range of buildings and facilities, notably data centers which require a high degree of stable cooling. Samsung said it anticipates sustained growth in data center demand due to the proliferation of generative AI, robotics, autonomous driving and other technologies.

FläktGroup has more 60 major customers, including leading pharmaceutical companies, biotech and food and beverage firms, and gigafactories, according to Samsung’s statement.

Samsung said in March that its HVAC solutions had achieved double-digit annual revenue growth over the past five years, and that the company aimed to boost revenue by more than 30% in 2025.

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