Early Life
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg was born in White Plains in New York on May 14, 1984. His father, Edward Zuckerberg, is a dentist, and his mother Karen Zuckerberg is a psychiatrist. He was raised in a comfortable upper-middle class family in Dobbs Ferry, New York. Zuckerberg has three sisters, Randi, Donna, and Arielle. He was a brilliant student and also a computer programmer. He started programming at the age of 12. His father taught him Atari-BASIC programming to write programs in the Atari 800. He also taught himself how to create games and computer programs.
Zuckerberg attended Ardsley High School and then transferred to Phillips Exeter Academy, where he was a prodigy. He created a music recommendation system called Synapse while in high school. He was accepted into Harvard in 2002. At Harvard, he became known for developing “Facemash”, a website that allowed users to compare pictures of two Harvard students and rate them according to their attractiveness.
Creation of Facebook
In 2003, Mark Zuckerberg, along with his roommates and fellow Harvard students, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, created Facebook. Initially, the platform was used by college students to connect with their peers and to share photos. The platform soon took off and grew quickly. In 2004, Thefacebook.com was launched. This was the renamed version of the company that would later be named Facebook.
In 2005, Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to pursue his entrepreneurial ambitions. He moved to Silicon Valley, where he began to focus on building the Facebook platform and expanding the company. In 2006, the public launch of Facebook gained traction and by 2007, the platform had over 100 million users, making Mark Zuckerberg a household name.
Growth and Expansion
In 2008, Facebook was hugely successful, and Zuckerberg was lauded as a technology and business genius. He was featured in Time Magazine’s Person of the Year issue, and appeared on the cover of the issue.
In December of 2009, Facebook launched the “like” button, which quickly became a popular way for users to express their approval or interest in something. In 2010, Facebook raised $1.5 billion in funding from Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky Technologies. This funding allowed Facebook to expand further and to grow its network of users.
In 2012, Facebook went public, selling shares at $38 apiece and raising over $18 billion. This made Zuckerberg a billionaire, and made Facebook the largest technology IPO in history.
Philanthropy and Philanthropic Ventures
Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan created the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which focuses on philanthropic and advocacy efforts. They have committed to donating 99 percent of their wealth to charity. In 2016, they created the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, a medical research center in San Francisco.
He also founded the Breakthrough Starshot project, an initiative that aims to develop light-based interstellar travel. Zuckerberg has also been an advocate for immigration reform and for bringing refugees to the United States.
Criticism
Mark Zuckerberg has faced criticism for his leadership in controlling content on the Facebook platform. He has also faced calls from privacy activists and members of Congress to create a more transparent system for responding to abuse and hate speech on the platform.
In 2018, he was dragged into the data privacy scandal when it was revealed that Facebook had sold data on millions of users to a third-party firm. This resulted in increased scrutiny of Facebook’s data privacy practices.
Personal Life
Mark Zuckerberg has been married to Priscilla Chan since 2012. The couple have two daughters, Max and August, and they live in Palo Alto, California. Zuckerberg is an avid reader and enjoys playing board games and ping-pong. He is also a philanthropist and has donated millions of dollars to various charities and causes.
Business Ventures
In 2014, Zuckerberg bought the virtual reality company Oculus VR for $2 billion. In 2016, he invested $250 million in the artificial intelligence company Vicarious AI. He is also an investor in several other companies, including the genetic testing company 23andMe and the health care company Verily Life Sciences.
Political Activity
In 2018, Zuckerberg launched the lobbying group FWD.us, which advocates for immigration reform, criminal justice reform, and education reform. He has also made political donations to both Democratic and Republican candidates, though he has leaned more heavily toward Democratic candidates in recent years.
Public Image
Zuckerberg has been the subject of numerous films and books, including the Social Network and Doing Good Better. He has been praised for his entrepreneurial spirit and his ambitious goal-setting. He has been criticized for his perceived lack of empathy and his oversight of content on Facebook. He is respected by many in the technology industry, though he is seen by some as an example of wealth, power, and privilege.
