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Mark Zuckerberg

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Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg in Paris in 2008
Born (1984-05-14) May 14, 1984 (age 40) Taurus
White Plains, New York
Occupation(s)Founder, CEO & President of Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg, (born May 14, 1984) is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur. As a Harvard student, he created the online social website Facebook, a site popular among students worldwide, with fellow computer science major students and his roommates Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. He serves as Facebook's CEO. He has been the subject of controversy for the origins of his business and his wealth.

Time Magazine added Zuckerberg as one of The World's Most Influential People of 2008. Zuckerberg fell under the Scientists & Thinkers category for his web phenomenon, Facebook, and ranked 52 out of 101 people.

Early life

Zuckerberg was raised in Dobbs Ferry, New York, by his parents, Edward and Karen Zuckerberg. His father Edward is a dentist in Dobbs Ferry, New York, and his mother is a physician. He started programming when he was in middle school. Early on, Zuckerberg enjoyed developing computer programs, especially communication tools and games. While attending Phillips Exeter Academy, he built a program to help the workers in his father's office communicate; he also built a version of the game Risk and a music player named Synapse that used artificial intelligence to learn the user's listening habits. Microsoft and AOL tried to purchase Synapse and recruit Zuckerberg, but he decided to attend Harvard University instead.

Facebook

Zuckerberg (right) with Robert Scoble in 2008

Founding

Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his Harvard dorm room on February 4, 2004. It quickly became a success at Harvard and more than two-thirds of the school's students signed up in the first two weeks. It started off as just a "Harvard-Thing," until Zuckerberg then decided to spread Facebook to other schools and enlisted the help of roommate Dustin Moskovitz. They first spread it to Stanford, Dartmouth, Columbia, Cornell and Yale, and then to other schools with social contacts with Harvard. By the beginning of the summer, Zuckerberg and Moskovitz had released Facebook at almost forty-five schools and hundreds of thousands of people were using it. Zuckerberg was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity while at Harvard.

Moving to California

Zuckerberg moved to Palo Alto, California, with Moskovitz and some friends. To date, he has not returned as a student to the college. They leased a small house which served as their first office. Over the summer, Zuckerberg met Peter Thiel who invested in the company. They got their first office during the summer of 2004. According to Zuckerberg, the group planned to return to Harvard in the fall but eventually decided to remain in California.

News Feed

On September 5, 2006, Facebook launched News Feed, a product to show what your friends were doing on the site. Zuckerberg was criticized as some saw News Feed as unnecessary and a tool for cyberstalking.

The first piece of news ever on a Facebook News Feed appeared in Zuckerberg's own facebook profile. It read, "Kerry sucks at tennis."

Facebook Platform

On May 24, 2007, Zuckerberg announced a Facebook Platform, a development platform for programmers to create social applications within Facebook. This announcement sparked a lot of interest in the developer community. Within weeks, many applications had been built and some already had millions of users. Today, there are more than 400,000 developers around the world building applications for Facebook Platform.

On July 23, 2008, Zuckerberg announced Facebook Connect, a version of Facebook Platform for building social applications on other websites.

Facebook Beacon

On November 6, 2007, Zuckerberg announced a new social advertising system at an event in Los Angeles. A part of the new program, called Beacon, enabled people to share information with their Facebook friends based on their browsing activities on other sites. An eBay seller, for instance, could let friends know automatically what they have for sale via the Facebook news feed as they list items.

The program came under heavy privacy concerns from both privacy groups and individual users. Zuckerberg and Facebook failed to respond to the concerns quickly, and on December 5, 2007, Zuckerberg ultimately wrote a blog post on Facebook taking responsibility for issues with Beacon and offering an easier way for users to opt out of the service.

ConnectU Controversy

Zuckerberg's Harvard classmates, Divya Narendra, Cameron Winklevoss, and Tyler Winklevoss, claimed that he stole their idea intended for their own site, ConnectU. A lawsuit was filed in 2004 but has been dismissed without prejudice on March 28, 2007, although was never ruled on. It was refiled soon thereafter in U.S. District Court in Boston, and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for July 25, 2007. At the hearing the judge told ConnectU parts of their complaint were not sufficiently pled and gave them the ability to refile an amended complaint. On June 25, 2008, the case was settled and Facebook agreed to pay a $65 million settlement.

As part of the lawsuit, in November 2007, confidential court documents were posted on the website of Harvard alumni magazine 02138. They included Zuckerberg's social security number, his parents' home address and his girlfriend's address. Facebook filed to get the documents taken down, but the judge ruled in favor of 02138.

Forbes

In 2008, Forbes ranked Mark as the 321st richest person in the United States, with a net worth of $1.5 billion. He is the youngest person to ever appear on the Forbes 400. In 2009 it was reported that Zuckerberg's fortune had dropped below $1 billion.

Microsoft investment in Facebook

On October 24, 2007, Facebook Inc. sold a 1.6% stake to Microsoft Corp. for $240 million, spurning a competing offer from online search leader Google Inc. This would indicate that Facebook had a market value of $15 billion at the time of the sale. However, most analysts believe the actual valuation of the company to be far less. The $240 million dollars paid by Microsoft include premiums for both preferred shares and global ad placements.

References

  2. Reagan, Gillian (2009-03-10). Thumbs Up! There's a Lot to Like about 'Like' (HTML). The New York Observer. The New York Observer, LLC. Retrieved on 2009-03-11
  3. news.com article about 02138
  5. "Hacker. Dropout. CEO".
  9. The Facebook Blog | Facebook
  10. PC World - Facebook Tries to Fend Off Copyright-Infringement Claim
  12. news.com article about 02138
  13. Forbes Top400
  15. Microsoft invests $240 million in Facebook - MSNBC.com

External links

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Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook Edit this at Wikidata

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