"Facebook is a successful company now, but we got there the American way: we started with nothing and provided better products that people find valuable. As I understand our laws, companies aren’t bad just because they are big. Many large companies that fail to compete cease to exist," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to tell lawmakers at an antitrust hearing on Wednesday, according to prepared remarks released to the public. "We know that our future success is not guaranteed, especially in a global tech industry defined by rapid innovation. The history of technology is often the history of failure, and even industry leading tech companies fail if they don’t stay competitive." In the remarks, Zuckerberg will be defending the company's acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp, arguing that Facebook's products face heavy competition from other companies, "including against companies that have access to markets that we aren’t in." Incidentally, Zuckerberg's pitch about "big companies" is similar to what Amazon's Jeff Bezos will be arguing. Highlights from Zuckerberg's testimony The China card: Zuckerberg resurfaced an observation he has made about the Chinese internet, saying, "China is building its own version of the internet focused on very different ideas, and they are exporting their vision to other countries. As Congress and other stakeholders consider how antitrust laws support competition in the U.S., I believe it’s important to maintain the core values of openness and fairness that have made America’s digital economy a force for empowerment and opportunity here and around the world." Facebook…
