Michael Zuckerberg is the chief executive officer, co-founder, and chairman of the social networking site, Meta which was initially known as Facebook. Michael developed the social media platform in 2004 while he was still studying at Harvard University. He founded it alongside his friends Andrew McCollum, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. It should be noted that Michael is a self-taught computer programmer. The Bloomberg magazine reported that as of 2020, Michael’s net worth had accumulated to nearly sixty-eight billion dollars.
Early Life and Education
Michael Zuckerberg was born on the 14th of May 1984 in New York. He developed his passion for computers at a very young age. When he was 12 years old, he taught himself the basic language of programming and he managed to develop messaging software using his father’s computer. Michael joined Phillips Exeter Academy and later attended Harvard University. Two years later he dropped out of the University to concentrate on developing Facebook. As he was developing it, he came up with two different ventures, one was a website that ranked students based on their attractiveness and the other was an online networking platform. He merged the two ventures and that is how Facebook came up. The site instantly became popular as many users started registering. They could upload photos, customize profiles and keep in touch with their friends and other people online.
Accomplishments
In the early years of Facebook, Michael and his colleagues raised 13 million dollars in venture capital. The funds allowed them to expand their services to hundreds of high schools, colleges, and universities. A year later, Facebook was opened to the public and quickly spread to many parts of the globe. Yahoo, which was also a networking platform, offered one billion dollars to purchase Facebook and Michael declined the offer in a swift manner. In 2012, Facebook broke the record for becoming the most successful internet business when it made more than ten million dollars.
Over the years, Meta (Facebook) has bought numerous companies including Instagram which was purchased for one billion dollars, Whatsapp for twenty-two billion dollars, and Oculus Vr for 2 billion dollars. Recently, it has acquired dozens of artificial intelligence companies (AI) and it is anticipated that in the next decade, Meta could be the biggest social networking site.
Wealth and Philanthropy
Michael has created several headlines in regard to his philanthropic activities. The most notable one was in 2010 when he donated 100 million dollars to learning institutions in New York. In 2014, Michael and his wife, Chan were acknowledged as the most generous donor in the United States after his company gave out 18 million dollars of its shares to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. In 2015, Michael helped his wife in creating the Chan Zuckerberg Program whose primary purpose was to foster equality for all children across the globe and advance their human capabilities. The initiative has so far donated more than 9 million dollars and has managed to change the lives of many children and their families.
Controversies
Since its inception, Meta has been the center of several allegations. The major allegation that Meta had to justify itself was that it was selling users’ personal information to other companies. These allegations amounted to the United States presidential elections held in 2016 where it was said that Russia financed ads that influenced American voters to vote for a particular person. The New York Times also reported that a consulting firm was paid to collect information on fifty million Meta users without their consent. In 2018, Meta confirmed the allegations to be factual and offered an apology to its customers. Michael later assured Meta users that the company will safeguard their privacy as it was developing excellent privacy controls.
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