As a biography, Mark Zuckerberg was born May 14, 1984 in Dobbs Ferry, New York, so his age is 23. Mark began programming computers in sixth grade. After high school, he enrolled at Harvard University as part of the class of 2006. As a student he continually worked on computer projects from his dorm room, but he got in trouble after the computer services department brought him before the Administrative Board. After hacking into student records to create an online directory, he was charged with breaching computer security and violating rules on Internet privacy and intellectual property. This didn’t deter Mark from working, though.
On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched Facebook. After becoming a success on his own campus, he and his roommate, Dustin Moskovitz, began spreading it to other colleges. By summer, more than 30 universities’ students were able to use Facebook. After classes ended for the year, Mark and Dustin moved to Palo Alto, California and set up an office. Although they originally intended to go back to Harvard at the end of the summer, business took off and they stayed on the west coast. Today, Facebook has four buildings at its Palo Alto “urban campus”.
Facebook is now the sixth most-trafficked site on the Internet. But Zuckerberg’s resistance to selling out has got people talking. Rumor has it the company was offered $1 billion in a buy out, and Zuckerberg said no. Critics are comparing it to Friendster, the first social-networking site out there that has now fallen by the wayside to giants like MySpace and Facebook - the company was offered $30 million in 2002 by Google, and they turned it down. In response, Zuckerberg says,
“As a company we’re very focused on what we’re building and not as focused on the exit. We just believe that we’re adding a certain amount of value to people’s lives if we build a very good product.”
“As a company we’re very focused on what we’re building and not as focused on the exit. We just believe that we’re adding a certain amount of value to people’s lives if we build a very good product.”
But it hasn’t all been roses for the Facebook founder. He’s had some legal troubles along the way. Three former Harvard classmates are suing Zuckerberg for stealing their idea. They say they hired him to program ConnectU, a social networking site for students at a college campus. And the lawsuit isn’t going away - it’s been in the court system since September 2, 2004 and is still pending.
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