Mark Zuckerberg- The Founder and CEO of Facebook
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Mark Zuckerberg is famous for Facebook. He was one of the youngest self-made billionaires just at the age of 23. In 2020, in the month of August, he came under the centibillionaire list. He's an American media magnate, internet businessman, and philanthropist. He serves as Facebook's president, chief executive and controlling shareholder. He is also co-founder of the Groundbreaking Starshot Solar Sail Spacecraft Production Project and serves as one of its board members.
Mark Zuckerberg - Biography
| Name | Mark Elliot Zuckerberg |
|---|---|
| DOB | 14 May, 1984 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Internet Entrepreneur |
| Title | Founder & CEO of Facebook, Inc and Co-founder of Chan Zuckerberg Initiative |
| Spouse | Priscilla Chan |
| Children | 2 |
| Net Worth | $115 Billion (May 2021) |
Mark Zuckerberg - Early Life
Mark Zuckerberg - Education
Mark Zuckerberg - Beginning of Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg - Career
Mark Zuckerberg - Controversies
Mark Zuckerberg - Philanthropist
Mark Zuckerberg - Awards and Achievements
Mark Zuckerberg - FAQs
Mark Zuckerberg - Early Life
Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984, in White Plains, New York. His parents are Karen, a psychiatrist, and Edward Zuckerberg, a dentist. He along with his three sisters, Randi, Donna, and Arielle, were brought up in Dobbs Ferry, New York, a small Westchester County village about 21 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. His ancestors hailed from Germany, Austria and Poland and Zuckerberg was raised in a Reform Jewish household. At the age of 13 he had a Star Wars-themed bar mitzvah.
Mark Zuckerberg - Education
Zuckerberg excelled in classes at Ardsley High School. He transferred to the private school Phillips Exeter Academy after 2 years. He won prizes in mathematics, astronomy, physics, and classical studies. In his youth, he has also attended the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth summer camp. Zuckerberg stated that he could read and write French, Hebrew, Latin, and ancient Greek on his college application. He is not just a nerd and was the captain of the fencing team.
Mark Zuckerberg - Beginning of Facebook
Zuckerberg had already gained a "reputation as a programming prodigy" by the time he started classes at Harvard, and he studied psychology and computer science. He was a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi and of Kirkland House. He wrote a software he called CourseMatch, which enabled users to make class selection decisions based on other students' choices. After a short time, he created a new software that he originally called Facemash, allowing students to pick the best-looking individual from a collection of images. According to Zuckerberg's roommate, Arie Hasit, at that time, "he built the site for fun." Hasit explains:
We had books called Face Books, which included the names and pictures of everyone who lived in the student dorms. At first, he built a site and placed two pictures or pictures of two males and two females. Visitors to the site had to choose who was "hotter" and according to the votes there would be a ranking.
The site went up over a weekend. But the college turned it off by Monday morning, because its popularity overwhelmed one of Harvard's network switches and stopped students from accessing the Internet. A lot of students complained at that time that their photos were being used without permission. But Zuckerberg publicly apologized, and articles were run in the student paper saying his platform was "absolutely unacceptable."
Zuckerberg began writing code for a new website the following semester, in January 2004. Â On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched "TheFacebook," which was originally located at thefacebook.com. When he launched Facebook, three of his seniors (CÄľ Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra) in Harvard after 6 days accused him of purposely misleading them into thinking that he would help them create a social network called HarvardConnection.com, while instead using their ideas to develop a rival product.
The three protested to The Harvard Crimson, and in response, the newspaper launched an investigation. Those three filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg after Facebook was launched officially. It resulted in a settlement. They agreed a settlement for 1.2 million Facebook shares.
In his sophomore year, Zuckerberg had dropped out of Harvard to complete his thesis. In January 2014, he recalled:
I remember really vividly, you know, having pizza with my friends a day or two after—I opened up the first version of Facebook at the time I thought, "You know, someone needs to build a service like this for the world." But I just never thought that we'd be the ones to help do it. And I think a lot of what it comes down to is we just cared more.
Zuckerberg received an honorary degree from Harvard on May 25, 2017. He gave a commencement speech on the same day at Harvard’s 366th commencement Day.
Meghashree Das
Mark Zuckerberg - Career
Wirehog
A month after Zuckerberg launched Facebook in February 2004, there was launch of i2hub, another campus-only service created by Wayne Chang. The i2hub focused on sharing files peer-to-peer. At the time, both i2hub and Facebook gained media attention and were rising exponentially in users and advertising. In August 2004, Zuckerberg, Andrew McCollum, Adam D'Angelo and Sean Parker founded a rival peer-to-peer file sharing service called Wirehog.
Platform, Beacon, and Connect
Zuckerberg unveiled on May 24, 2007 the Facebook Forum, a forum for programmers to create social applications within Facebook. A lot of applications were developed within weeks and some already had millions of users. It has expanded to more than 800,000 developers around the globe developing Facebook Platform applications.
Zuckerberg revealed on November 6, 2007 Beacon, a social advertisement system that allowed people to exchange information with their Facebook friends based on their surfing habits on other pages. For instance, eBay sellers might automatically let friends know what they've got for sale via Facebook news feed as they list items for sale. The software was under investigation due to concerns regarding the privacy of groups and individual users. Zuckerberg and Facebook failed to respond quickly to the complaints and Zuckerberg published a blog post on Facebook on December 5, 2007, accepting responsibility for Beacon 's issues and offering users a simpler way to opt out of the service.
In 2007, Zuckerberg was named to the TR35 list by MIT Technology Review as one of the world's top 35 innovators under 35. Zuckerberg revealed on 23 July 2008 Facebook Link, a user-friendly version of the Facebook Site.
Critics say that, Facebook bought Instagram because it was scared of Twitter and Google+. Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012. Today Instagram has over 1 billion users. Instagram contributes $20 billion to Facebook annual revenue. Facebook purchased Whatsapp- the messaging sevice, for $19 billion in February, 2014.
Mark Zuckerberg - Controversies
Saverin lawsuit
A complaint brought against Facebook and Zuckerberg by Eduardo Saverin was settled outside court. While settlement terms were sealed, the firm confirmed Saverin 's role as Facebook's co-founder. After the settlement Saverin signed a non-disclosure agreement.
Pakistan criminal investigation
Pakistani Deputy Attorney General Muhammad Azhar Sidiqque initiated a criminal investigation into Zuckerberg and Facebook co-founders Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes in June 2010, following a Facebook hosting of a "Draw Muhammad" contest. The investigation identified the German woman who produced the contest as anonymous. Sidiqque requested police from the country to contact Interpol to have Zuckerberg and the other three arrested for blasphemy. Facebook's website was briefly blocked in Pakistan on May 19, 2010, before Facebook removed the contest from its website in late May. Sidiqque also demanded that its UN representative discuss the issue with the UN General Assembly.
Cambridge Analytica Data Breach
Zuckerberg appeared before Congress in April 2018, after it was reported that the company had exchanged consumer data with Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm.
Forbes has attributed the dramatic decline in the stock price of Facebook following the company's July warning investors of slowing growth and profit margins to the increasing effect of the battle between profit and privacy, citing the story of Cambridge Analytica and the rising inability of Facebook to protect users from harmful misuse and misinformation.
Palestinian terror attacks
Israeli cabinet minister Gilad Erdan accused Zuckerberg of having some responsibility for Palestinians' deadly attacks on Israelis on 2 July 2016.[93] According to him, the social network was not doing enough to ban posts on its site that encourage violence against Israelis. "Sure of the blood of the victims is on the hands of Zuckerberg," Erdan said.
Hawaiian land ownership
Zuckerberg filed eight "quiet title and division" lawsuits against hundreds of Hawaiian natives in January 2017 to buy small tracts of land which they own. This land is located within the 700 acres of land which Zuckerberg had purchased in 2014 on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. After learning that Hawaiian land ownership law differs from that of the other 49 states, he dropped the lawsuits.
Paul Ceglia
Paul Ceglia, owner of a wood pellet fuel business in Allegany County, upstate New York, filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg in June 2010, alleging 84 percent Facebook possession and demanding monetary damages. According to Ceglia, on April 28, 2003, he and Zuckerberg signed a contract for an initial fee of $1,000 entitled Ceglia to 50 percent of the website 's sales, as well as an additional 1 percent stake in the company every day after January 1, 2004, until completion of the website. At the time, Zuckerberg was creating other ventures, including Facemash, Facebook's precursor, but the domain name thefacebook.com was not licenced until 1 January 2004. Facebook spokesperson Barry Schnitt told a reporter that Ceglia 's lawyers had unsuccessfully pursued a settlement outside court.
On 26 October 2012, federal prosecutors arrested Ceglia, charging him with mail and wire fraud and "tampering, damaging and manipulating evidence in a conspiracy to defraud the Facebook founder of billions of dollars." Ceglia is accused of creating emails in order to make it appear that he and Zuckerberg exchanged specifics of an early version of Facebook. Before it was launched, some law firms withdrew from the case, and others after Ceglia 's arrest.
Rishabh Rathi
Mark Zuckerberg- Philanthropist
2010
Zuckerberg contributed an undisclosed sum to Diaspora- a personal open-source Web server that operates a distributed social networking programme.
Zuckerberg founded the Start-up: Education foundation.
Zuckerberg had donated $100 million to Newark Public Schools, the public school system of Newark, New Jersey on September 22,2010.
Zuckerberg, along with Bill Gates, and investor Warren Buffett signed "The Giving Pledge" on December 9, that year, in which they vowed to devote at least half of their wealth over time to charity. They also invited others among the wealthy to donate 50 percent or more of their wealth to charity.
2012
In December, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan announced that over the course of their lives they would give the majority of their wealth to "advancing human potential and promoting equality" in the spirit of The Giving Pledge.
2013
On December 19, Zuckerberg announced a donation to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation of 18 million Facebook shares, to be completed by the end of the month. Based on the valuation of Facebook as of then, the value of the stock was $990 million.
On December 31, the donation was recognized as the largest charitable gift on public record for 2013.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy put Zuckerberg and his wife at the top of the 2013 annual list of the magazine's 50 most generous Americans.
2014
Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan donated US$25 million to fight the Ebola virus disease, specifically the West African Ebola virus epidemic on October.
2015
On December, Zuckerberg and Chan pledged to transfer 99% of their Facebook shares, (then at US$45 billion) to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the organization that focuses on health and education. Instead of the funds transferring immediately, it transfers over the course of their lives.
Instead of creating a charitable organisation to donate the value of the stock to, as did Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and other billionaires, Zuckerberg and Chan opted to use a limited liability company ( LLC) structure. Some journalists and academics have even come to say that, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative conducts philanthrocapitalism.
2016
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative gave $600 million in 2016 to establish the tax-exempt charity Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, a collaborative research facility near the university in San Francisco's Mission Bay District from California, San Francisco, with the goal of promoting cooperation and collaboration between UCSF, University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University scientists. The developed intellectual property would be jointly owned by Biohub and the house institution of the discoverer. Unlike foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that give up all research that is funded to free public access and reuse, Biohub maintains the freedom to sell any research that it supports. Inventors will have the option of making their findings open-source, with permission from Biohub.
2020
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Zuckerberg donated $25 million to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It is a foundation that is searching for treatments for the disease. He announced $25 million in grants to support local journalism that was impacted by the pandemic. And $75 million in advertisement purchases in local newspapers by Facebook, Inc., where Facebook will market itself.
Mark Zuckerberg - Awards and Achievements
- A film entitled 'A Social Network' was released in 2010, focused on the life of Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook founding years. The film has received eight  academy award nominations.
- In 2010 he won 'Person of the Year' by 'Times' Magazine.
- 'CEO of the Year' at 6th Annual Crunchies in 2013.
- He was also named on Time 100 list four consecutive times between 2009 and 2012. Time 100 is a list of around the world's 100 most influential individuals.
- He was also the youngest self-made billionaire just at the age of 23.
- August, 2020 he was able to come under the "centi-billionaire" list.
Mark Zuckerberg - FAQs
Who Mark Zuckerberg?
Mark Zuckerberg is an American media magnate, internet businessman, and philanthropist. He is the founder of Facebook and serves as Facebook's president, chief executive and controlling shareholder.
What is Mark Zuckerberg age?
As of 2021, his age is 37.
What is Mark Zuckerberg net worth?
As of May 2021, according to Forbes, the net worth of Mark Zuckerberg is $115 Billion.
How old was Mark Zuckerberg when he became a billionaire?
Mark Zuckerberg was just 23 years old when he became a billionaire.
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