Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is an American Internet Entrepreneur, probably the co-founder of Facebook, philanthropist and is the Youngest self-made Billionaire in the world (at the age of 23). Born on May 14, 1984 in White Plains, New York, Mark is now the co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Facebook Inc., and the company’s vital share-holder. Mark also co-founded ‘Solar Sail’, a spacecraft development project of Breakthrough initiatives that plans to build lightening speed craft, aiming to arrive at Alpha Centauri Star system, 4.37 light years away.
The life of Zuckerberg, the way he paved to be the youngest self-made billionaire, details, pros and cons of him, explains this blog as factual points!
Points on Facebook Co-founder – Mark Zuckerberg:
- Mark Zuckerberg was brought up in a Reform Jewish household by his dentist father and psychiatrist mother in New York. He was a boy of excellence in his schoolings, notably in Ardsley High School and Philips Exeter Academy. Mark’s father was keen on catering his son, Basic programming language and skills from his teens; hired a software developer for his son.
- Whilst being in high school, Mark applied for graduate Programming course at Mercy college. He was doing the both, hand to hand. As a young-teen, he learned to code and was the iconic add-on for his future career.
Initial makings
- Mark at first developed a software program for his father, that enables to connect all the computers between his father’s dental office and his house, to ease the intra-communication. The program was called “ZuckNet” and is now regarded as the primitive version of AOL’s (American Web Portal & online service provider) Instant Messenger.
- In his Philips Exeter Academy, he developed ‘The Photo Address Book’ in 2002, that refers to be the antecedent of facebook. The address book enclosed all the details of the students in the Academy, feasible for everyone to access through the student’s information.
- During the Academy years, Mark worked for building a music player called ‘Synapse Media Player’. He also developed games during his high school years; “I was fortunate to have bunch of friends as artists. They would come over, draw stuffs and I’d build a game out of it”, Zuckerberg says.
College years:
- Mark enrolled in Harvard University for psychology and computer-science and was a prodigy of programming already. His college years were an extra boom to his coding skills, coming out with software and applications. His first draw on in his sophomore years is ‘Course Match’, which ailed for the difficulties in class selection decisions for the students and finding a group to study.
- The second was ‘Facemash’, a program for rating the best-looking person listed in it. The program used the college student’s faces and was pushed to criticisms as many students claimed of illegally using their photos in the application. The program was shut down by the University. Mark Zuckerberg said ‘it was fun’.
The Facebook
- His university years gained him an opportunity to design a website called, “Thefacebook”, which he co-founded with his roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes and launched to the campus students on February 4, 2004, at the age of 19. The site, originally meant to create a social platform for the Harvard students was then extended to other famous colleges and universities like Columbia University, New York University and University of Pennsylvania and more with Dustin’s support.
- However, three of Zuckerberg’s Harvard Seniors filed a lawsuit against him, just after six days of launch of the website, of intentionally misleading them into believing he would help them build a social network called ‘HarvardConnection.com’, while he was instead using their ideas and built a product. The lawsuit claimed them 1.2 million Facebook shares and a $20 million cash amount.
- For carrying out further developments of the website, he quit his Harvard career, but received an honorary degree from Harvard on May, 2017. The group of founders then moved to Palo Alto, California and leased a small room as office. Mark then met Peter Thiel, the first investor of the company. Profitably, the founders came across many corporations to buy their product but they pulled down, all of the appeals.
“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”, Zuckerberg in an interview in 2007.
- The company grasped an immense growth in the new millennium and achieved markable 500 Million users on 21st July 2010. Being a night-doer, Facebook’s ‘Hackathons’ initiative had staff members contributing a night to conceive of and complete a project, every six to eight weeks. The company provided food, music and beer at the hackathons, wherein Zuckerberg too would involve.
“The idea is that you can build something really good in a night”
- In view of expanding its users from Russia in 2012, Mark headed to visit Dmitry Medvedev, Russian Prime Minister, who agreed to let Facebook to stimulate the social media innovation in Russia. The meet and the process managed to gain 9 Million Russian users, competing the country’s clone VK, social media mostly of Russians with 34 Million users.
- Facebook was enlisted in IPO in May 2012 and still owns 15% of its stocks. Facebook marked an astonishing 1 billion users in the same year.
- Mark Zuckerberg hosted visiting Chinese politician Lu Wei alongside other Business figures like Jeff Bezos and Tim Cook, in 2014. Perhaps, Facebook is banned in China, for denying to provide the details of the Xinjian independence activists (terrorists), who used Facebook as part of their communication networks; Zuckerberg was highly regarded in China for developing the nation’s entrepreneurship sector.
Other Launches:
- While Facebook in its developing years, it saw i2hub as competitively developing start-up that focused on peer-to-peer file sharing. To compensate the competition, Mark Zuckerberg co-founded ‘Wirehog’, similar to i2hub with 3 of his friends. Its regarded as a precursor to Facebook Platform applications.
- In 2007, Mark came with ‘Beacon’, a social advertising platform that enables the sellers to advertise and reach their products to the public. Later the facility was scrutinized for privacy concerns and ruled out, replacing better methods.
- Zuckerberg made public the ‘Internet.org’ project in 2013, aiming for having five billion people to be accessed by internet, all around the world. The project incorporated other corporate magnates namely Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai, to have discussions for affording internet to all rural communities in less developed countries.
- Facebook was temporarily halted in Pakistan, after a “Draw Muhammad” contest that was hosted on Facebook in 2010. The founders were filed a lawsuit for blasphemy.
- The Social Network: Zuckerberg’s life and the make of Facebook was filmed as ‘The Social Network’, starring Jesse Eisenberg as the reel Zuckerberg. While the film didn’t portray the billionaire positively, Zuckerberg claimed himself as a good boy in an interview. Later, in 2011 January 29, the reel and real hero appeared in a Saturday Night Live in Facebook, the only time Zuckerberg went live in Facebook.
Family & Philanthropy:
- Mark Zuckerberg married Prischilla Chan in 2012, whom he dated from 2003, from his sophomore years. The couple had two daughters, ‘Maxima Chan Zuckerberg’ in December 2013 and another in August 2017.
- The couple agreed to bequeath 99% of their wealth, that strikes $55 Billion. Mark Zuckerberg was always a good philanthropist, giving away for the betterment of the society and people. He donated $25 million for the eradication of Ebola virus and another $25 million to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for their research on treatments to COVID-19.
- Zuckerberg was ranked first in Vanity Fair’s ‘Most Influential Person of the Information Age’ in 2010 and tenth in the Forbes’ ‘World’s Most Powerful People’ in 2016. He was one of the top 20 wealthiest persons in the world consistently from 2007.
- His biograph is scripted as “The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal” in 2009 by Ben Mezrich. The billionaire is $79.7 billion worthy as of June 29, 2020.
“Taking no risks is the biggest risk in life!”
References:
- wikipedia.com
- forbes.com