INTERNET — When asked by Senator Lindsey Graham in testimony in front of the U.S. Senate yesterday if Facebook was a monopoly, Mark Zuckerberg answered by saying the average American uses eight social apps.<br /><br />What he didn't say was that Facebook owns or has cloned most of these apps.<br /><br />Citing mobile app insight service App Annie, Techcrunch reports that Facebook owns three of the Top 10 iOS apps in the U.S.: Instagram, Messenger, and Facebook. Those three are the social apps most used by Americans. <br /><br />And Facebook either has or is working on a similar version of competing social apps. "Stories" is Facebook's latest of several attempts to copy Snapchat. "Watch Video" is being developed to go after YouTube.<br /><br />Facebook also owns WhatsApp, the 19th most popular iOS app in America.<br /><br />By selecting the "Social Media" category on App Annie and sorting by the most popular apps, you can clearly see that the top three are owned by Facebook. <br /><br />This is not a coincidence. Over the years, Facebook has always either bought or sought to copy any emerging social network that challenges its power, Techcrunch reports.<br /><br />If you're still not sure if Facebook is a monopoly or not, ask yourself this question: If you deleted your Facebook account, could you find all of your friends and family on another social app?<br /> <br />MySpace, anyone?
