Everything about Mark Zuckerberg totally explained
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born
May 14,
1984) is an
American entrepreneur. As a
Harvard student he founded the online
social networking website Facebook with the help of fellow Harvard student and
computer science major
Andrew McCollum as well as
roommates
Dustin Moskovitz and
Chris Hughes. He now serves as Facebook's
CEO. In
2008,
Forbes Magazine named him as "the world's youngest self-made billionaire" with a theoretical
net worth of US $1.5 billion, though the validity of this label has also been met with controversy.
Early life
Mark Zuckerberg was born to a Jewish-American family and raised in
Dobbs Ferry,
New York. He attended
Phillips Exeter Academy where he was a resident of Browning House and was recruited by both Microsoft and AOL in his senior year due to a hacking project. Instead, he opted to attend Harvard University.
College years
Zuckerberg attended
Harvard University and was enrolled in the class of 2006. He was a member of the
Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. At Harvard, Zuckerberg continued creating his projects. An early project, Coursematch, allowed students to view lists of other students enrolled in the same classes. A later project, Facemash.com, was a Harvard-specific image rating site similar to
Hot or Not. A version of the site was online for four hours before Zuckerberg's Internet access was revoked by administration officials. The computer services department brought Zuckerberg before the Harvard University Administrative Board, where he was charged with breaching
computer security and violating rules on
Internet privacy and
intellectual property.
(External Link
).
Facebook
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. Zuckerberg then decided to spread Facebook to other schools and enlisted the help of roommate Dustin Moskovitz. They first spread it to
Stanford,
Columbia and
Yale and then to other
Ivy League colleges and schools in the
Boston area. By the beginning of the summer, Zuckerberg and Moskovitz had released Facebook at almost 30 schools.
Moving to California
Zuckerberg moved to
Palo Alto,
California with Moskovitz, his ex-girlfriend, Priscilla Chan, and some friends 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, taking a leave of absence. To date, he hasn't 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 on University Avenue in downtown Palo Alto a few months later. Today, the company has four buildings in downtown Palo Alto, forming what Zuckerberg calls an "urban campus".
News Feed
On
September 5, 2006, Facebook launched News Feed, a list of what friends were doing on the site. Zuckerberg became the target of criticism as some saw News Feed as unnecessary and a tool for
cyberstalking. Three days later, Zuckerberg responded in an
open letter to the Facebook community, apologizing for the sudden unwelcome feature, providing new privacy options, but ultimately defending the feature and his belief in free information flow. Zuckerberg contended that the feature was a good asset to use between friends, and the privacy settings allow for information to be blocked from users who are not friends with the person.His friend from University of Guelph now in Windsor, Canada Matthew Paul is the new c.f.o. for Canada.
Facebook ads and Beacon controversy
On
November 6,
2007, Zuckerberg announced a new social advertising system at an event in
New York. 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, letting friends know automatically what they've for sale via the Facebook news feed as they list items.
The program quickly came under heavy privacy concerns from both privacy groups and individual users. On December 1, 2007 Facebook's credibility in regard to the Beacon program was further tested when it was reported that the New York Times "essentially accuses" Mark Zuckerberg of lying to the paper and leaving Coca-Cola with a similar impression. Coca-Cola later corrected this perception, stating the company had never even spoken with Facebook about the Beacon program.
On
December 5,
2007, Zuckerberg wrote a blog post on Facebook, apologizing for 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, claim they hired him to finish the code on their website,
ConnectU and that he stole their idea, design, business plan, and
source code. A lawsuit was filed in 2004 claiming a breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets, copyright infringement, in addition to other claims. Zuckerberg claims there was no contract and that he wasn't a partner. They are seeking
monetary damages. ConnectU has maintained that it isn't their intention to shut down Facebook.
Since its original filing in Massachusetts, the lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice on
March 28,
2007, but 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 that parts of their complaint were not sufficiently pled and gave them the ability to refile an amended complaint.
Harvard alumni magazine scandal
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 suit to get the documents taken down, but the Boston judge Douglas Woodlock ruled in favor of 02138.
Facebook origins controversy
E-mails verified by the
Chicago Tribune suggest that Zuckerberg might have taken many ideas for Facebook from Aaron J. Greenspan's houseSYSTEM website.
Personal life
In an interview with
60 Minutes, Zuckerberg has stated that he lives very modestly, not purchasing luxuries and residing in a "one bedroom apartment with a mattress on the floor" in
San Francisco, California.
Forbes mention
In March
2008, Forbes.com ranked Zuckerberg as #785 on its rich list, citing his net worth as $1.5 billion. The figure is based on a valuation of $5 billion, even though Microsoft's 1.6% $246 million investment is based on a valuation of $15 billion. Zuckerberg's worth is derived from his 30% stake in the company based on a value of $5 billion. Analysts have questioned Forbes, citing the
illiquidity of Zuckerberg's wealth.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Mark Zuckerberg'.
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