Facebook.. an inspiring story

This is for those who suspects and laughs at people who have a dream. It's your dreams which can take you places, and who can tell this story better than Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of the social networking giant, facebook!

When Mark Zuckerberg showed up in Palo Alto three years ago, he had no car, no house, and no job. Today, he's at the helm of a smokin'-hot social-networking site, Facebook, and turning down billion-dollar offers. Can this kid be for real?

It was then, and it is now. The site hit the 500 million user mark, is now setting its sights on Russia, Japan, Korea and China in its quest for world domination.

"If we succeed (in innovating and remaining relevant) there is a good chance of bringing this to a billion people… it will be interesting to see how it plays out," Zuckerberg told two packed auditoriums via video link at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. "We are down to just four countries where we aren't the leading social network." he added.

In Russia, just 1 million users currenty use Facebook, though the user figures are 'doubling every six months'. Japan and Korea have similar user bases.

"It's all been very interesting," says Zuckerberg, sitting in a conference room in Facebook's Palo Alto headquarters. He looks every bit the geek in his zippered brown sweatshirt, baggy khakis, and Adidas sandals. He came into the room eating breakfast cereal from a paper bowl with a plastic spoon. He still lives in a rented apartment, with a mattress on the floor and only two chairs and a table for furniture. ("I cooked dinner for a girlfriend once," he admits at one point. "It didn't work well.") He walks or bikes to the office every day.

Zuckerberg's college-kid style reinforces the doubts of those who see the decision to keep Facebook independent as a lapse in judgment. In less than two years, the two reigning Web 2.0 titans have sold out to major corporations: MySpace accepted $580 million to join News Corp., and YouTube took $1.5 billion from Google. Surely any smart entrepreneur would jump at a chance to piggyback on those deals.

You can become a fan of Mark Zuckerberg on facebook. Visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mark-Zuckerberg-The-unofficial-fan-page/129577587077073

Sources:

http://www.fastcompany.com, http://www.metro.co.uk

Rahul Arora

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