Mark Zuckerberg, fully Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, (born May 14, 1984 in White Plains, New York, USA), American computer programmer, co-founder and CEO (2004–) of Facebook, a social networking site. 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 where his fellow Harvard students entered his own information and photos into a template he had developed
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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 universities across the country. Facebook quickly became popular because registered users could create profiles. , upload photos and other media and keep in touch with friends. However, it differed from other social networking sites in its emphasis on real names (and email addresses) or "trusted connections". He also placed special emphasis on networking in, sharing information not only with each individual's network of friends but also with friends of friends, in what Zuckerberg called the "social graph".
In the summer of 2004, the trio moved their headquarters to Palo Alto, California, where Zuckerberg convinced venture capitalist Peter Thiel to give them seed capital. Zuckerberg left Harvard to focus on the start-up company of which he became CEO and President. In May 2005, Facebook received its first major venture capital injection ($12.7 million). Four months later, Facebook opened registration for high school students.
Meanwhile, overseas colleges and universities were also beginning to register, and by September 2006, anyone with an email address could join a regional network based on where they live. Around this time, Zuckerberg turned down a buyout offer from Yahoo! of $1 billion, but in 2007 Facebook settled with Microsoft in which the software company paid $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake. two years later, Digital Sky Technologies bought 1.
96 percent stake for $200 million. In 2008, Zuckerberg's new worth was estimated at around $1.5 billion. Following Facebook's initial public offering (IPO) in 2012, Zuckerberg's net worth was estimated at more than $19 billion. Zuckerberg started Facebook at Harvard in 2004, at the age of 19, so students could match names with photos of classmates.
Facebook went public in May 2012; he now owns about 13% of the company's stock. Facebook changed its name to Meta in November 2021 to shift the company's focus to the Metaverse. In June 2021, a judge dismissed state and federal antitrust cases that could result in Facebook selling Instagram and WhatsApp. In December 2015, Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, pledged to give away 99% of their Facebook shares over the course of their lifetime.
