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Mark Zuckerberg
Zuckerberg at South by Southwest in 2008.
Born
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg

(1984-05-14) May 14, 1984 (age 40)
White Plains, New York
NationalityAmerican
EducationPhillips Exeter Academy
attended Harvard College
Occupation(s)Co-founder, CEO and President of Facebook

Mark Elliot "Zuck" Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) is an American entrepreneur who co-founded the social networking site Facebook. Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook with fellow classmates Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, and Chris Hughes while attending Harvard. He is a billionaire due to his 24% share of Facebook.[2]

Personal life

Zuckerberg was born in White Plains, New York to Karen, a psychiatrist, and Edward, a dentist.[3] Mark, along with his three sisters, was raised in Dobbs Ferry, New York.[3] His parents are Jewish[4] but he considers himself an atheist. [5]

Zuckerberg started programming when he was in middle school. Early on, he enjoyed developing computer programs, especially communication tools and games. He studied at Ardsley High School where he excelled in the classics, before transferring in his junior year to Phillips Exeter Academy where he immersed himself in Latin.[6][7]

He also designed and programmed a computer application system to help the workers in his father's office communicate; he built a version of the game Risk, and under the company name Intelligent Media Group, he built a music player named the Synapse Media Player that used artificial intelligence to learn the user's listening habits, which was posted to Slashdot[8] and received a rating of 3 out of 5 from PC Magazine.[9] Microsoft and AOL tried to purchase Synapse and recruit Zuckerberg, but he instead went to Harvard College in September 2002 and joined Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jewish fraternity.[3] In his sophomore year at Harvard, he also met his future fiancee, Priscilla Chan, a Chinese-American from the Boston suburbs.[3] In college, he was known for reciting lines from epic poems such as The Iliad.[6]

Zuckerberg "clearly thinks of himself as a hacker"[10] and says hacking isn't about "breaking and entering," it's about "being unafraid to break things in order to make them better."[11] Facebook conducts "hackathons" every six to eight weeks in which participants have one night to conceive of and complete a project.[10] The company provides music, food, and beer at the hackathons, and many Facebook staff members, including Zuckerberg, regularly attend.[11] "The idea is that you can build something really good in a night,” Zuckerberg told Wired. "And that’s part of the personality of Facebook now ... It’s definitely very core to my personality."[10]

On Zuckerberg's Facebook page, he lists his personal interests as "openness, making things that help people connect and share what's important to them, revolutions, information flow, minimalism." [12]

Vanity Fair magazine named Zuckberberg number 1 on its list of the Top 100 "most influential people of the Information Age" for 2010.[13] Zuckerberg ranked number 23 on the Vanity Fair 100 list in 2009.[14] In 2010, Zuckerberg was chosen as number 16 in New Statesman's annual survey of the world's 50 most influential figures.[15]

Facebook

Main article: Facebook
Zuckerberg (right) with Robert Scoble in 2008.

Founding and goals

Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his Harvard dormitory room on February 4, 2004.[16] The idea came to him because the Harvard administration was unable to implement an online directory in response to student requests.[17] However, an earlier inspiration for Facebook may have come from Phillips Exeter Academy, the private high school from which Zuckerberg graduated in 2002. It published its own student directory, "The Photo Address Book", but which students referred to as "The Facebook". Such photo directories were an important part of the student social experience at many private schools. With them, students were able to list attributes such as their class years, their proximities to friends, and their telephone numbers.[16]

Once at college, Zuckerberg's Facebook started off as just a "Harvard thing" until Zuckerberg decided to spread it to other schools, enlisting the help of roommate Dustin Moskovitz. They first started it at Stanford, Dartmouth, Columbia, New York University, Cornell, Brown and Yale, and then at other schools that had social contacts with Harvard.[18][19][20]

Zuckerberg moved to Palo Alto, California, with Moskovitz and some friends. They leased a small house that served as an office. Over the summer, Zuckerberg met Peter Thiel who invested in the company. They got their first office in mid-2004. According to Zuckerberg, the group planned to return to Harvard but eventually decided to remain in California. They had already turned down offers by major corporations to buy out Facebook. In an interview in 2007, Zuckerberg explained his reasoning:

It's not because of the amount of money. For me and my colleagues, the most important thing is that we create an open information flow for people. Having media corporations owned by conglomerates is just not an attractive idea to me.[17]

He restated these same goals to Wired magazine in 2010: "The thing I really care about is the mission, making the world open.[21]

On July 21, 2010, Zuckerberg reported that the company reached the 500 million-user mark[22] and at least one out of every fourteen people in the world has a Facebook account, according to one source.[3] When asked whether Facebook could earn more income from advertising as a result of its phenomenal growth, he explained:

I guess we could ... If you look at how much of our page is taken up with ads compared to the average search query. The average for us is a little less than 10 percent of the pages and the average for search is about 20 percent taken up with ads ... That’s the simplest thing we could do. But we aren’t like that. We make enough money. Right, I mean, we are keeping things running; we are growing at the rate we want to.[21]

Wirehog

Main article: Wirehog

A month after Facebook launched in February 2004, i2hub, another campus-only service, created by Wayne Chang, was launched. i2hub focused on peer-to-peer file sharing. At the time, both i2hub and Facebook were gaining the attention of the press and growing rapidly in users and publicity. In August 2004, Zuckerberg, Andrew McCollum, Adam D'Angelo, and Sean Parker launched a competing peer-to-peer file sharing service called Wirehog. It was a precursor to Facebook Platform applications. Traction was low compared to i2hub, and Facebook ultimately shut Wirehog down the following summer.[23][24]

Platform and Beacon

On May 24, 2007, Zuckerberg announced Facebook Platform, a development platform for programmers to create social applications within Facebook. Within weeks, many applications had been built and some already had millions of users. It grew to more than 800,000 developers around the world building applications for Facebook Platform. On July 23, 2008, Zuckerberg announced Facebook Connect, a version of Facebook Platform for users.

On November 6, 2007, Zuckerberg announced a new social advertising system called Beacon, which enabled people to share information with their Facebook friends based on their browsing activities on other sites. For example, eBay sellers could let friends know automatically what they have for sale via the Facebook news feed as they list items for sale. The program came under scrutiny because of privacy concerns from groups and individual users. Zuckerberg and Facebook failed to respond to the concerns quickly, and on December 5, 2007, Zuckerberg wrote a blog post on Facebook[25] taking responsibility for the concerns about Beacon and offering an easier way for users to opt out of the service.

ConnectU lawsuits

Main article: ConnectU

Harvard students Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of intentionally making them believe he would help them build a social network called HarvardConnection.com (later called ConnectU).[26] They filed a lawsuit in 2004 but it was dismissed on a technicality on March 28, 2007. It was refiled soon thereafter in federal court in Boston, and a hearing was scheduled for July 25, 2007, to address Zuckerberg's motion to dismiss.[27] At the hearing the judge told ConnectU that parts of the complaint were deficient and gave them leave to file an amended complaint. Facebook countersued in regards to Social Butterfly, a project put out by The Winklevoss Chang Group, an alleged partnership between ConnectU and i2hub. It named among the defendants ConnectU, Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, Divya Narendra, and Wayne Chang, founder of i2hub.[28] The parties reached a confidential settlement agreement in February 2008.[29] On June 25, 2008, the case settled and Facebook agreed to transfer over 1.2 million common shares and pay $20 million in cash.[30] In May 2010, it was reported that the ConnectU founders were accusing Zuckerberg of securities fraud for misrepresenting the value of the shares.[31] The founders were under the impression they were worth $45 million.[31] However, that understanding was based on a valuation of preferred shares, whereas the founders had only received common shares.[31] The effect was that the shares given to the founders as part of the settlement were worth 75% less than Facebook had led them to believe, and the overall cash-and-stock deal worth 50% less.[31] Since the time of the settlement, the stock has been trading for $76 per share on secondary markets, which would put the value of the settlement at $120 million.[32] According to one report, the Winklevoss brothers plan to sue Facebook again based on allegations that Facebook misled them as to the valuation of the settlement.[32]

In November 2007, confidential court documents were posted on the website of 02138, a magazine that catered to Harvard alumni. They included Zuckerberg's social security number, his parents' home address, and his girlfriend's address. Facebook filed to have the documents removed, but the judge ruled in favor of 02138.[33]

Pakistan criminal investigation

In June 2010, Deputy Attorney General Muhammad Azhar Sidiqque of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan launched a criminal investigation into Zuckerberg and Facebook co-founders Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes after a "Draw Muhammad" contest was hosted on Facebook. The investigation also named the anonymous German woman who created the contest. Sidiqque asked the country's police to contact Interpol to have Zuckerberg and the three others arrested for blasphemy. On May 19, 2010, Facebook's website was temporarily blocked in Pakistan until Facebook removed the contest from its website at the end of May. Sidiqque also asked its United Nations representative to raise the issue with the United Nations General Assembly. No formal charges have been filed against Zuckerberg.[34][35]

Paul Ceglia

Main article: Paul Ceglia

On June 30, 2010, Paul Ceglia, the owner of a wood pellet fuel company in Allegany County, New York, filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg, claiming 84% ownership of Facebook and seeking monetary damages. According to Ceglia, he and Zuckerberg signed a contract on April 28, 2003 that for an initial fee of $1,000 entitled Ceglia to 50% of the website's revenue, as well as an additional 1% interest in the business per day after January 1, 2004, until website completion. Zuckerberg was developing other projects at the time, among which was Facemash, the predecessor of Facebook, but did not register the domain name thefacebook.com until January 1, 2004. Facebook management dismissed the lawsuit as "completely frivolous". Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt told a reporter that Ceglia's counsel had unsuccessfully attempted to seek an out-of-court settlement.[36] In an interview with ABC World News, Zuckerberg stated he was confident of never signing such an agreement. At the time, Zuckerberg worked for Ceglia as a code developer on a project named "StreetFax". Judge Thomas Brown issued a restraining order on all financial transfers concerning ownership of Facebook until further notice; in response, Facebook removed the case to federal court and asked that the state court injunction be dissolved. According to Facebook, the injunction would not affect their business but lacked any legal basis.[37][38][39][40][41][42]

Depictions in media

The Social Network

Main article: The Social Network

A movie based on Zuckerberg and the founding years of Facebook, called The Social Network, was released on October 1, 2010, and stars Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg. After Zuckerberg was told about the film, he responded, "I just wished that nobody made a movie of me while I was still alive."[43] Also, after the film's script was leaked on the Internet and it was apparent that the film would not portray Zuckerberg in a wholly positive light, he stated that he wanted to establish himself as a "good guy".[44]

The Social Network is based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich, which the book's publicist once described as "big juicy fun" rather than "reportage."[45] The film's screenwriter Aaron Sorkin told New York magazine, "I don’t want my fidelity to be to the truth; I want it to be to storytelling," adding, "What is the big deal about accuracy purely for accuracy’s sake, and can we not have the true be the enemy of the good?"[46]

According to Sorkin's script, Zuckerberg created Facebook to elevate his stature after not getting into any of the elite final clubs at Harvard. Yet Zuckerberg told The New Yorker he had no interest in joining the final clubs.[3]

Other depictions

Zuckerberg plays himself in an episode of The Simpsons, "Loan-a Lisa", which originally aired on October 3, 2010. In the episode, Lisa Simpson and her friend Nelson encounter Zuckerberg at an entrepreneurs' convention. Zuckerberg tells Lisa that you don't need to graduate from college to be wildly successful referencing Bill Gates and Richard Branson as examples. [47]

On October 9, 2010, Saturday Night Live lampooned Zuckerberg and Facebook.[48] Andy Samberg played Zuckerberg. The real Zuckerberg was reported to have been amused: "I thought this was funny."

Philanthropy

Zuckerberg donated an undisclosed amount to Diaspora which is an open-source personal web server that implements a distributed social networking service. He called it a "cool idea."[21]

On September 22, 2010, it was reported that Zuckerberg had arranged to donate $100 million to Newark Public Schools, the public school system of Newark, New Jersey.[49] Critics noted the timing of the donation as being close to the release of The Social Network, a film that paints a somewhat negative portrait of Zuckerberg.[50][51] Zuckerberg responded to the criticism, saying, "The thing that I was most sensitive about with the movie timing was, I didn’t want the press about 'The Social Network' movie to get conflated with the Newark project. I was thinking about doing this anonymously just so that the two things could be kept separate."[50] Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker stated that he and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie had to convince Zuckerberg's team not to make the donation anonymously.[50]

References

  1. ^ "Forbes profile page on Mark Zuckerberg". Forbes. Retrieved Retrieved September 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  2. ^ David Kirkpatrick. The Facebook Effect. p. 322.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Vargas, Jose Antonio (September 20, 2010). "The Face of Facebook". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2010-09-22. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ Boggan, Steve (2010-05-21). "The Billionaire Facebook Founder making a fortune from your secrets (though you probably don't know he's doing it)". Mail Online. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
  5. ^ Vara, Vauhini (2007-11-28). "Too Much Information? - WSJ.com". Online.wsj.com. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
  6. ^ a b McDevitt, Caitlin (2010-03-05). "What We Learned About Mark Zuckerberg This Week". The Big Money. Retrieved 2010-03-05. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  7. ^ Grynbaum, Michael M. "Mark E. Zuckerberg ’06: The whiz behind thefacebook.com." The Harvard Crimson. Thursday June 10, 2004. Retrieved on August 29, 2010.
  8. ^ Hemos/Dan Moore (April 21, 2003). "Machine Learning and MP3s". Slashdot. Retrieved September 3, 2010.
  9. ^ Troy Dreier (February 8, 2005). "Synapse Media Player Review". PCMag.com. Retrieved September 3, 2010.
  10. ^ a b c Levy, Steven (April 19, 2010). "Geek Power: Steven Levy Revisits Tech Titans, Hackers, Idealists". Wired. Retrieved 2010-09-23. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  11. ^ a b McGirt, Ellen (February 17, 2010). "The World's Most Innovative Companies 2010". Fast Company. Retrieved 2010-09-24. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ Zuckerberg's Facebook Page
  13. ^ "The Vanity Fair 100". Vanity Fair. October 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-23. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  14. ^ "The Vanity Fair 100". Vanity Fair. September 1, 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-23. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  15. ^ "Mark Zuckerberg - 50 People who matter 2010". New Statesman. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
  16. ^ a b "Did Mark Zuckerberg's Inspiration for Facebook Come Before Harvard?". ReadWriteWeb. May 10, 2009. Retrieved October 9, 2010.
  17. ^ a b "Face-to-Face with Mark Zuckerberg '02" Phillips Exeter Academy website, Jan. 24, 2007
  18. ^ Chris Holt (March 10, 2004). "Thefacebook.com's darker side". The Stanford Daily.
  19. ^ "Online network created by Harvard students flourishes". Tufts Daily. Retrieved 2009-08-21.
  20. ^ "Thefacebook.com opens to Duke students — News". Duke Chronicle. Retrieved 2009-08-21.[dead link]
  21. ^ a b c Singel, Ryan (2010-05-28). "Epicenter: Mark Zuckerberg: I Donated to Open Source, Facebook Competitor". Wired News. Condé Nast Publishing. Retrieved 29 May 2010.
  22. ^ http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=409753352130
  23. ^ Martey Dodoo (2004-08-16). "Wirehog?". Martey Dodoo.
  24. ^ Alan J. Tabak (2004-08-13). "Zuckerberg Programs New Website". Harvard Crimson.
  25. ^ "The Facebook Blog | Facebook". Blog.facebook.com. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
  26. ^ Nicholas Carlson. "In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg Broke Into A Facebook User's Private Email Account". Silicon Alley Insider. Retrieved 2010-03-05.
  27. ^ "Facebook Tries to Fend Off Copyright-Infringement Claim". PC World. 2007-07-24. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
  28. ^ California Northern District Court (2007-03-09). "The Facebook, Inc. v. Connectu, LLC et al". Justia.
  29. ^ Brad Stone (2008-06-28). "Judge Ends Facebook's Feud With ConnectU". New York Times.
  30. ^ Logged in as click here to log out (February 12, 2009). "Facebook paid up to $65m to founder Mark Zuckerberg's ex-classmates | Technology | guardian.co.uk". London: Guardian. Retrieved 2009-08-21.
  31. ^ a b c d Owen Thomas (2010-05-19). "Facebook CEO's latest woe: accusations of securities fraud". VentureBeat.
  32. ^ a b Nicholas Carlson (2010-09-23). "The Facebook Movie is WRONG - Here's How Much Zuckerberg Actually Gave the Winklevosses To Go Away". Business Insider.
  33. ^ McCarthy, Caroline (2007-11-30). "article about 02138". News.com. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
  34. ^ West, Jackson. "Facebook CEO Named in Pakistan Criminal Investigation". NBC Bay Area. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
  35. ^ "Zuckerberg faces criminal investigation in Pakistan".
  36. ^ Anderson, John (July 29, 2010). "Facebook does not have a like button for Ceglia". WellsvilleDaily.com. Retrieved August 29, 2010.
  37. ^ Oreskovic, Alexei (July 12, 2010). "Facebook fights New Yorker's claim of 84 percent stake". Reuters. Retrieved July 22, 2010.
  38. ^ Fowler, Geoffrey A. (July 13, 2010). "Man Claims Ownership of Facebook". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 22, 2010.
  39. ^ Priyanka (July 22, 2010). "Zuckerberg 'quite sure' he didn't hand over 84% Facebook to Ceglia". The Money Times. Retrieved July 22, 2010.
  40. ^ Kawamoto, Dawn (July 13, 2010). "Facebook and Website Designer Paul Ceglia Brawl Over 84% Stake". DailyFinance.com. Retrieved July 22, 2010.
  41. ^ Chowdhry, Amit (July 13, 2010). "Paul Ceglia Files Lawsuit Against Facebook Claiming To Own 84% Of The Company". Pulse2. Retrieved July 22, 2010.
  42. ^ Bosker, Bianca (July 13, 2007). "Paul Ceglia Claims To Own 84% Stake In Facebook". The Huffington Post. Retrieved July 22, 2010.
  43. ^ Fried, Ina (June 2, 2010). "Zuckerberg in the hot seat at D8". CNET. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
  44. ^ Harlow, John (2010-05-16). "Movie depicts seamy life of Facebook boss". The Times Online. Retrieved 2010-07-18.
  45. ^ Cieply, Michael and Helft, Miguel (August 20, 2010). "Facebook Feels Unfriendly Toward Film It Inspired". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-09-22. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  46. ^ Harris, Mark (September 17, 2010). "Inventing Facebook". New York. Retrieved 2010-09-22. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  47. ^ "Facebook Creator Mark Zuckerberg to Get Yellow on The Simpsons". New York. July 21, 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-22. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  48. ^ Brandon Griggs (October 11, 2010). "Facebook, Zuckerberg spoofed on 'SNL'". CNN. Retrieved October 11, 2010.
  49. ^ Reidel, David (2010-09-22). "Facebook CEO to Gift $100M to Newark Schools". CBS News.com. Retrieved 2010-09-23.
  50. ^ a b c "Zuckerberg Pressured To Announce $100 Million Donation To Newark". Forbes. 2010-09-24. Retrieved 28 Sep 2010.
  51. ^ "Mark Zuckerberg's Well-Timed $100 Million Donation to Newark Public Schools". New York Magazine. 2010-09-22. Retrieved 28 Sep 2010.

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