Mark Zuckerberg, the youngest billionaire on Earth, is famous for being the creator of Facebook; the social network which now has more than a billion monthly active users every month.
People all across the world have been able to stay in touch with all of their friends, all thanks to Zuckerberg’s Facebook, and of course WhatsApp and Instagram. In this article, we will share business story of Mark Zuckerberg.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Background
As a child, Mark Elliot Zuckerberg lived in the New York City borough of Dobbs Ferry where he was born on the 14th of May, 1984. Second among four children, he was the only son of the well-educated family. His father, Edward Zuckerberg, worked as a dentist, while his mother Ellen Zuckerberg was a psychiatrist. His father ran a dentistry office right next to the house where the family lived. Dobbs Ferry, New York, was indeed home to Mark and his 3 sisters: Arielle, Randi, and Donna.
Mark’s interest in computer programming began when he was just a kid. Having his first PC Quantex 486DX on an Intel 486 at the age of 10 taught Mark that the world is divided into programmers and users.
According to Mark Zuckerberg’s biography, his father taught him Atari BASIC Programming when he was around 12 years old, and Mark used Atari BASIC to construct a messaging service, which he dubbed “ZuckNet,” at the time. It connected all of the computers in the house and the dental clinic so that communications could be exchanged. In the dental office, his father installed Messenger on the computer, so when a new customer came in, he was alerted by the receptionist. Mark also enjoyed designing communication tools and games, and he did so just for the sake of having fun. His father even paid a private computer teacher named David Newman, who taught his son on a one-on-one basis.
The Birth of Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg purchased the domain name Thefacebook.com on February 4, 2004, which is now known as Facebook.com. However, the application was meant to be used only by Harvard students. Once Dustin Moskovitz, a friend of Zuckerberg’s, and he discovered how many people had already signed up for Facebook, they decided to promote it to other universities, such as Yale, Columbia, Stanford, and New York University. Consequently, Zuckerberg and a few other mates set up a modest office in Palo Alto, California (in Silicon Valley). A number of prominent firms asked to make them an offer but they declined. The creation of a free flow of information would be of paramount importance to Mark Zuckerberg and his associates.
Facebook quickly grew in popularity outside of the educational community. For the first time, Mark Zuckerberg began seeking out investors. Peter Thiel, one of PayPal’s co-founders and a well-known figure in the tech industry, provided Mark with his first investment. For Facebook, Peter Thiel allotted $500,000, which was more than enough for direct purposes of Facebook. The project took off like a rocket. Over 1 million users signed up on the social network in less than a year after its inception. More money was needed for Facebook’s growth to continue. Accel Partners put $12.7 million into Facebook and Greylock Partners contributed an additional $27.5 million to that.
Facebook was made available to all US colleges and universities in 2005. It wasn’t long before Zuckerberg realized that Facebook was more than just a social network for college students. Then the decision was made to open registration to the general public. Following this move, there came the Facebook “outbreak.”.
In 2013, Facebook, Inc. recorded a total revenue of $7.87 billion, and a net profit of $1.5 billion. Moreover, the growth rates are excellent, with a six-fold increase in turnover in 3 years.
The majority of Facebook’s revenue comes from contextual advertising on the site’s pages. Growing traffic and user engagement translate into more advertising revenue.
Instagram, Oculus Rift, and WhatsApp Acquisitions
As a smart entrepreneur, Mark Zuckerberg has acquired numerous businesses that continue to operate independently under Facebook’s canopy.
Zuckerberg paid $1 billion in cash and stock in April 2012 to acquire Instagram, a mobile photo-sharing application. Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom created the first version of the app for iOS. Currently, the Instagram app is also accessible for android devices.
Oculus Rift
Oculus Rift was purchased by Facebook in March 2014 for $2 billion. The Oculus VR Company, led by Palmer Freeman Luckey, created the Oculus Rift, a type of virtual reality hardware. A total of $400 million was paid in cash and 23.1 million Facebook shares, with an additional $300 million in benefits to be secured if It reaches specific benchmarks in the future.
In 2009, Jan Koum and Brian Acton created WhatsApp, an instant messaging service. Mark Zuckerberg bought WhatsApp for $22 billion in October 2014.
Rounding Off
In 2010, TIME named Mark Zuckerberg its Person of the Year. That year, the likes of Lady Gaga, James Cameron, and Julian Assange, the creator of WikiLeaks, were vying for the honor. TIME magazine, on the other hand, proclaimed him a hero. TIME’s editor-in-chief, Richard Stengel, explains their decision: ‘The social network developed by Mark connected practically every tenth person on earth.’ As he put it, ‘Today, Facebook is the third-largest country in the world that understands its citizens as much as no government on the planet does today. According to TIME, no one else in the previous year had such a profound effect on the world.
Mark Zuckerberg’s fame is so great that in 2010 David Fincher filmed a movie called ‘The Social Network,’ in which Jesse Eisenberg excellently played the role of the Facebook founder.
Thanks for reading this Mark Zuckerberg’s biography and success story; we hope it has piqued your interest in innovative thinking.
