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The co-founder and CEO of the social media giant Facebook, in 2019.
© Anthony Quintano (CC BY 2.0)
- in full:
- Mark Elliot Zuckerberg
- born:
- May 14, 1984, White Plains, New York, U.S. (age 40)
- Founder:
- Notable Family Members:
- son of Edward Zuckerberg
- son of Karen Kempner
- married to Priscilla Chan (2012–present)
- father of Maxima Chan Zuckerberg (b. 2015)
- father of August Chan Zuckerberg (b. 2017)
- brother of Randi Zuckerberg
- brother of Donna Zuckerberg
- brother of Arielle Zuckerberg
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What is Mark Zuckerberg famous for?
Mark Zuckerberg is famous for being cofounder and chief executive officer of Facebook, the world’s largest social network Web site. He founded the service in 2004 while he was at Harvard University with four of his fellow students.
Why did Mark Zuckerberg drop out of college?
Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of college in 2004 to devote himself to Facebook, which he had founded at Harvard University with four fellow students there—Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.
Mark Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984, White Plains, New York, U.S.) is an American computer programmer who was cofounder and CEO (2004– ) of Facebook, a social networking website.
After attending Phillips Exeter Academy, Zuckerberg enrolled at Harvard University in 2002. On February 4, 2004, he launched thefacebook.com (renamed Facebook in 2005), a directory in which fellow Harvard students entered their own information and photos into a template that he had devised. Within two weeks half of the student body had signed up. Zuckerberg’s roommates, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, helped him add features and make the site available to other campuses across the country. Facebook quickly became popular as registered users could create profiles, upload photos and other media, and keep in touch with friends. It differed from other social networking sites, however, in its emphasis on real names (and e-mail addresses), or “trusted connections.” It also laid particular emphasis on networking, with information disseminated not only to each individual’s network of friends but also to friends of friends—what Zuckerberg called the “social graph.”
In the summer of 2004 the trio moved their headquarters to Palo Alto, California, where Zuckerberg talked venture capitalist Peter Thiel into giving them seed money. Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to concentrate on the fledgling company, of which he became CEO and president. In May 2005 Facebook received its first major infusion of venture capital ($12.7 million). Four months later Facebook opened to registration by high-school students. Meanwhile, foreign colleges and universities also began to sign up, and by September 2006 anyone with an e-mail address could join a regional network based on where he or she lived. About that time Zuckerberg turned down a $1 billion buyout offer from Yahoo!, but in 2007 Facebook struck a deal with Microsoft in which the software company paid $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook; two years later Digital Sky Technologies purchased a 1.96 percent share for $200 million. In 2008 Zuckerberg’s new worth was estimated at about $1.5 billion. After Facebook’s initial public offering (IPO) of stock in 2012, Zuckerberg’s net worth was estimated at more than $19 billion.
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Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, talking about the Facebook News feature in 2019.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images News
In October 2021 Facebook announced that it was changing the name of its parent company to Meta Platforms. The name change reflected an emphasis on the “metaverse”, in which users would interact in virtual reality environments.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.
