Technology and Social Network Sites

1456 Words3 Pages

Facebook has become a global commodity interconnecting cultures, services, marketing and social lives. The social network is the most popular social network site (SNS) around the world, especially among young people in western countries. It enables users to bond with individuals, share information, including discussions of personal interest (Schwartz 2009). Users can send e-mail messages, chat with text or face to face, participate in discussion forums, and write on virtual message boards, wishing happy birthdays, or making cheerful remarks. Consumers can create a profile, including pictures and personal information. In addition, undesirable viewers can be blocked from certain information to protect the user’s privacy (Fisher 2010).
The creator of this global monster is Mark Zuckerberg who founded Facebook on February 2004, from his Harvard dorm room when he was a sophomore student. This universal social network was created from the idea of a college website. After dropping out of school and moving to Silicon Valley, the Facebook’s inventor found capitalist investors ready to make their stake in the fast growing social network. Mark Zuckerberg became the youngest self-made billionaire in history (Open Wire Press 2013). People around the world wondered how Zuckerberg’s net worth was calculated. Some argue that he is much richer than $1.5 billion dollars when taking into account that Microsoft invested 240 million dollars in Facebook for a 1.6 percent stake in 2007. With Microsoft investment, Facebook is placed at a market value of $15 billion dollars. Mark Zuckerberg holds a thirty percent stake in the company, which would have placed him with $5 billion dollars net worth. The Facebook valuation is said to be stated on the estim...

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