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Mark Zuckerberg. Photo: Fortune

Who is the Facebook Owner - Mark Zuckerberg?

Mark Zuckerberg is famous worldwide, for having developed 'Facebook', the most widely used social networking website. At a very young age, he was taught how to write computer programs by his father, and tutor David Newman. In high school, he developed a music player, 'Synapse', and while still a student at 'Harvard University', he launched his website 'Facebook', along with college mates ChrisHughes, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, and Dustin Moskovitz. Though he was initially accused by some senior students, of having stolen their idea, his site's popularity was not affected. 'Facebook' saw a steady rise in the number of active users per month.

The founder kept adding to the platform with services like 'Wirehog', 'Beacon', and 'Connect'. The website started out as a networking platform only for 'Harvard University', and then was opened for other colleges. Soon, it became available to general public and gained widespread popularity for its user-friendly interface. Zuckerberg is now the chairman and CEO of the company 'Facebook, Inc', earning one dollar as his salary. His website has made him so popular that the film ‘The Social Network’, starring Jesse Eisenberg, was made based on a book, ‘TheAccidental Billionaires’, which documented Mark’s life, according to academic.edu.

Early Life and Education

Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984, in White Plains, New York, U.S. As far as his nationality, he is an American and belongs to the mixed ethnicity. He is the son of Edward Zuckerberg (his father) and Karen (his mother). His ancestors were from Germany, Austria, and Poland.

His father was a dentist whereas his mother was a psychiatrist. He has three sisters namely Randi, Donna, and Arielle. He grew up in Jewish background and had his Bar Mitzvah at the age of 13. He spent his childhood days in his hometown and moved to Dobbs Ferry, New York with his family.

Zuckerberg studied Ardsley High School, where he excelled in the classes. He moved to the Phillips Exeter Academy, an exclusive private school in Hampshire. There he won prizes in science, math and classical studies.

Zuckerberg attended the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth summer camp. He claimed that he could read and write different languages such as French, Hebrew, Latin, and ancient Greek on his college application. He was a captain of the fencing group during his college days, as Article Bio cites.

Due to his early signs of success, his parents got him a computer programming tutor while he was still in high school, and they enrolled him in a prep school in New Hampshire. After graduating from prep school, Zuckerberg enrolled at Harvard University.

Success Story

While many intelligent people attend Harvard University, Mark Zuckerberg became known quickly as the go-to computer programmer on campus. By his sophomore year, he had already built two programs: CourseMatch and FaceMash.2 Both programs became wildly popular, but the university shut down the latter program after it was deemed to be inappropriate.

Based on his acclaim on campus, Zuckerberg partnered with friends to create a social networking site that allowed Harvard students to connect with each other. The site officially went live in June 2004 under the name "The Facebook," and Zuckerberg ran it out of his dorm room.

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Mark Zuckerberg's quote. Photo: Wealthy Gorilla

After his sophomore year, Zuckerberg dropped out of college to pursue what was now called Facebook, full-time. The website reached one million users by the end of 2004.3

This explosion of user growth attracted the attention of many venture capital (VC) firms, and Zuckerberg eventually moved out to Silicon Valley in 2005. Facebook received its first round of venture capital investments from Accel Partners, which invested $12.7 million in the site that was still only open to Ivy League students.2

By the end of 2005, however, Facebook had opened up to students attending other schools, causing the website to reach 5.5 million users.2 Since 2005, Facebook received numerous acquisition offers from the likes of Yahoo and Microsoft, has been through legal battles, and has greatly increased its user base.

On Oct. 30, 2019, Facebook released Q3 earnings. The company reported that daily active users averaged 1.62 billion for September 2019, an increase of 9% year-over-year. Monthly active users totaled 2.45 billion, an increase of 8% year-over-year.4 As of Jan. 30, 2020, the company has a market cap of $598 billion.5 Zuckerberg owns over 375 million Facebook shares and holds 60% of voting rights in the company, as reported by Investopedia.

Personal Life & Legacy

Mark started dating Priscilla Chan, a fellow student at 'Harvard University', while he was still in college. After seven years, they began living together, in a rented accommodation in Palo Alto. In 2009, writer Ben Mezrich released a book titled 'The Accidental Billionaires', based on the famous entrepreneur's life. Mezrich sold the rights to Aaron Sorkin, who wrote the screenplay for the movie 'The Social Network'. Mark claimed that the film was a deviation from the story of his life.In 2010, he established a 'Start-up: Education foundation', which aims at improving the quality of education provided in public schools. Zuckerberg and Priscilla got married on May 19, 2012. The couple had a daughter named Max in2015. This famous entrepreneur contributes regularly to social causes, and has made monetary donations to the ‘Newark Public Schools’, and ‘San Francisco General Hospital’. Along with his wife, he also contributed $25 million to help victims of the Ebola disease in West Africa
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