Facebook Fan For Life!

A few weeks ago, I saw Mark Zuckerburg speak at BYU. He was brought there to discuss public policy and technology with Senator Orrin Hatch. I was impressed by the fact that Zuckerburg was poised and eloquent, and definitely not the same Mark portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg. He appeared sincere when he explained that Facebook never has and never will sell user’s information to advertisers. And he genuinely is passionate about the social good Facebook can facilitate especially in the areas of democracy and education. His $100 million donation to Newark’s public school system was more than just a PR stunt; he genuinely wants to help improve this country’s public education. Everyone knows about all the media coverage the site is getting for its role in the revolutions in Egypt and other places in the Arab world. But I’m a Facebook fanatic and even I didn’t know this: they are mapping the friendships between people in countries that are historically not friendly. Increased cross-border connection means increased understanding and peaceful relations. Check out http://peace.facebook.com/. It’s pretty awesome.

“Facebook is proud to play a part in promoting peace by building technology that helps people better understand each other. By enabling people from diverse backgrounds to easily connect and share their ideas, we can decrease world conflict in the short and long term.”

I was also impressed with one other thing he said: Facebook wants to enable and inspire innovation and change, not be the only source of it. I got to thinking that there’s not a whole lot of companies in the history of the world who want to share the wealth like that. Maybe Apple and Google, with their respective app building platforms.

Most impressive to me as of late is the money-making aspect of Facebook, which you cannot help but be awe-struck by. Think of all the people who have become very, very rich thanks to Zuckerburg:

• Thousands of jobs have been created by social media savvy entrepreneurs and many companies eager to capitalize on the social network have hired people like me as social media managers and marketers. 
• Developers and Programers. For example: Zynga - social gaming company that created Farmville (which on a side note, is completely absurd to me; seems like an utter waste of time) is now valued at somewhere between $7-10 billion.
• Investors and early adopters. For example: Ad group Interpublic committed to spending $10 million of its clients money in 2006 and in return got a .4%, $5 million stake in the company. It is now worth a whopping $200-300 million! Now there is a return on your investment!
• And the most amazing: According to Forbes, Facebook has created 6 billionaires - Mark Zuckerburg, Eduardo Saverin, Sean Parker, Dustin Moskovitz, and investors Peter Thiel and Yuri Milner. Wow! Not only that, but Mark and Dustin and the world’s youngest billionaires!

My mind is seriously boggled by how quickly this site has grown into a once-in-a-generation, world-changing phenomenon. I couldn’t help but be a little star-struck when I saw Zuckerburg speak. In terms of net worth, that was the most money I had ever seen in one room. And here’s some proof I was there. Low-res, but proof nonetheless. Long story short, for these reasons and many more I am a Facebook fan for life!