MARK ZUCKERBERG: A PERSON TO EMULATE IN 2014
Mark Zuckerberg’s venture in the social media network has been a topic of discussion in some of the most prestigious magazines and televisions in the recent past. This has been due to his ability to have a fair share of the revenue generated by the social media networks. Whenever the name Mark Zuckerberg is mentioned anywhere, what clicks in everyone’s mind is Facebook (FB). A social media network which he pioneered. But, how did all begin?
Getting FB to where it is presently has not been a walk in the park as this young investor had to sacrifice a lot to follow his passion. At 23 years old, he had already defined what he wanted to become in life since he had begun developing social networks by then. Realization of FB begun with the development of Facemash. This was back in October 23, 2003 when he launched Facemash.com. It was a site which was used by the Harvard University students (where he was studying) to compare two students’ pictures mainly to identify who was cute and who wasn’t. This was after he had hacked the Harvard’s database to acquire students’ photos. It did not only put Mark at loggerheads with school administration, but also with his fellow students who demanded that the site be shut down. This wasn’t a big blow to him either since he had set his mind to establish a social network. It was clear that Mark had not only violated the University rules and regulations for distribution of digitized images but also the campus computer use policies. This was the first trouble he faced in his attempted to create FB. This didn’t make him abandon his passion as many would have done. Later, some of his friends; Divya Narendra, Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss also accused Mark of stealing the idea they had when creating HarvardConnection.com. They claimed that he used their idea to develop FB. He was later sued. A case which begun in September, 2004 when they claimed Mark had stolen their ideas while working for them as a programmer. It was later dropped. Another challenge which seemed to have encouraged Mark to pursue his passion. But who could actually tell actually tell how Mark will be in a decade to come? Mr. Zuckerberg’s idea proved to be viable and it was at this point that he began receiving investors such as Sean Parker and Peter Theil. By Dec 2004, FB had over one million registered members. He has remained focused on his ventures. FB is presently one of the leading social media networks after it acquired FriendFeed in 2009, Instagram in 2012 and its latest acquisition latest acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014. It has evolved from being for educational purposes to a marketplace which generate sales for most online investors. In fact, there’re numerous people who earn their living through FB.It was really a long journey that anyone who’s not determined and patient could easily give up. For Mark, any challenge he faced was an avenue for a greener pasture and on January 11, 2004; he registered thefacebook.com domain. By February 2004, “The Facebook”, was launched. Initially, it was only used by the Harvard University students before it spread to Boston universities, in the UK and the other parts of the world. In 2005, it was named facebook.com and it marked Mr. Zuckerberg’s entry to the social media network.
WHO’S ZUCKERBERG: A DECADE AFTER LAUNCHING FB?
Who has never heard of FB? Which social media network do you focus on as an online marketer or blogger? How many web pages are linked to FB? Definitely you must have an answer, but the plain truth is that all these have been possible through determination of Mr. Zuckerberg. FB has surely had a fair share of the market. He must be enjoying the fruits of his hard work. We can only use one word to describe him: a billionaire. He wasn’t born with it, neither were his parents nor the family members. He made it himself with support from close friends more so his classmates. An indication of how people around play a significant role. Just before his company could celebrate its first decade, he had already offered it to the public, but guess what; during its initial public offering (IPO) on May 18, 2012, its IPO was one of the biggest in the history in both the internet and technology. Its market capitalization was valued over $104 billion. No one could have expected this to happen considering that it had been in the public domain for less than a decade. 
That was then. After FB had celebrated its first decade in February, a share was valued for over $70 which was the highest since its IPO. At the moment it goes for above $65 which is really incredible. Mark Zuckerberg, is the CEO of FB. He owns a bigger percentage of FB shares and as of March 2014, his net worth had hit the $28.5 billion mark. May be you can look back and see how far FB has come from just right from the time he launched facemash.com which was thwarted a couple of days due to privacy issues. For this reason, he confidently bought WhatsApp at $19 billion just to have more grip on the social network. Actually, this was a calculated move since WhatApp was also another fastest social media network. Remember this was a point when the number of people joining FB had greatly declined. He also bought Oculus for a cool $2 billion. Oculus make Virtual Reality headsets. Once someone wears the headset they in a completely different reality. This is a truly remarkable company that they have bought out and it can lead to amazing advances in gaming and technology. May be Mark Zuckerberg had gone for this to secure the future of FB which was actually essential. This could be Mr. Mark Zuckerberg’s game plan to dominate the social media considering that he had bought Instagram some time back. Could he be going for the WeChat which also out to capture the Asian region while still strategizing to spread to the United State where FB dominates? Of course to be successful, you must have executable strategies which are realistic as Mr. Mark did. Challenges will also be part of it and you must learn to forge ahead despite the hard and difficult situations. 
Mr. Mark Zuckerberg, has actually made enough for himself and he’s still going to make more money as a matter of fact. FB still has a brighter future. Presently, as most financial analysts have projected; the gentleman is “having the best 2014 of anyone on earth”. This is one person who’s worth emulating in 2014. Mark Zukerberg has changed the way people communicate and introduced a new way to interact with people. Before Facebook you could not virtually poke someone or play on someone’s virtual farm but now with Facebook you can. A Hollywood film was made in 2010 about Mark Zukerberg and the creation of Facebook starring Jesse Einsberg. The film is called The Social Network and you can purchase it from Amazon. We hope you enjoyed this article about Mark Zukerberg and the success story behind him. A came from a long way and was in no means privileged. He was intelligent and talented and used those skills along with networking and the help of friends to build a billion dollar business empire that anyone would be proud of.
