Like all influential
and complex
entrepreneurs,
Facebook co-founder
Mark Zuckerberg
is many things to
many people. But he
is, first and
foremost, our young
century's first
Millennial CEO.
That's a fact that's
been glaringly
omitted -- not to
mention profoundly
misunderstood -- in
everything that's
been written and
reported about
Zuckerberg this
year. And due to the
continued rise of
Zuckerberg's company
(users spent more
time on
Facebook than on
Google this
year); the critical
drum-roll for
The Social
Network;
and largely because
Facebook is closing
the gap between our
virtual and real
lives, all the while
serving as an online
Rorschach test of
sorts; there's been
a mountain of
interest in and a
non-stop flood of
all things Zuck,
including the 60
Minutes segment
that aired this past
Sunday.
Though at times the
TV interview played
like
a free infomercial
for Facebook, which
unveiled its newest
site re-design
during the segment,
it offered some
insights. There was
the obligatory
exchange about
Facebook's stance on
user privacy, and a
nod towards the most
interesting story in
Silicon Valley --
the battle between
Google and Facebook.
(Note to reporters
and editors: it's
not just a business
and tech story; it's
a story, at bottom,
about changing human
behavior.) But the
most striking nugget
in the broadcast
came courtesy of
Kara Swisher, editor
of the Silicon
Valley staple
All Things Digital.
Three years ago,
Swisher famously
referred to
Zuckerberg as the
"Toddler CEO." A
Harvard drop-out,
with no managerial
experience to speak
of and a shyness
that easily came
across as cockiness,
Zuckerberg worked
through a revolving
door of senior
executives. Facebook
was unstable. "The
kid," as the old
guard called him,
was not up to the
job. No one thinks
that anymore --
certainly not in the
Valley. Swisher told
60 Minutes'
Lesley Stahl: "The
toddler's a prodigy,
as turns out."
And the prodigy,
unlike any other CEO
of his stature, is
growing up right in
front of our eyes. I
profiled
Zuckerberg earlier
this year for the
New Yorker.
After the profile
was published and
posted online, I
received numerous
Facebook messages,
tweets and emails
from readers, asking
questions ranging
from "Did he
really turn down
that much money?"
(yep, he did, a few
times) to some
variation of "...but
what really makes
him tick?" As a
Millennial myself, I
can tell you that
who Zuckerberg is
cannot be divorced
from the generation
he represents.
A Millennial
describes someone
who was born between
the late 1970s and
the early 1990s.
Members of this
generation are prone
to blur the line
between work and
home, between their
personal and
professional lives.
Bureaucracy saddled
with hierarchy is
sneezed at; what's
preferable is a more
flattened,
individually focused
yet
collaboration-oriented
working environment.
Having an impact is
just as valued, if
not more so, than
making money.
There's something
that seems downright
Barney-ish about all
of this. "I love you
/ You love me /
We're a happy
family," read the
lyrics to the show's
most famous song.
Nevertheless, this
disposition
represents a
fundamental change,
and an emerging
reality, for many
businesses within
and outside the tech
industry. Experts
say Millennials
comprise the fastest
growing group in the
workplace.
Facebook is the
first major Internet
start-up whose core
group of founders
and key executives
are Millennials,
from Chris Hughes,
who left Facebook to
work as
director of online
organizing for
Barack Obama's
presidential
campaign and now
serves as founder
and CEO of
Jumo,
a social network for
the social sector,
to Sean Parker,
the perennial
entrepreneur
who's the co-founder
of Napster, Plaxo
and
Causes, an
online advocacy and
fund-raising
application within
Facebook. Hughes is
27 years old; Parker
just turned 31.
Though Facebook
won't reveal the
median age of its
employees, the
engineering
brainpower inside
"The Bunker" -- as
Zuck calls his
company's
headquarters in Palo
Alto -- skews
younger than other
comparable tech
companies in the
Valley, which is
populated by CEOs
from the Baby Boomer
and Generation X
generations. From a
creative standpoint,
Facebook has become
a Millennial hub.
"I'm speaking in
generalities here,
of course, but Gen
Xers are largely
pragmatists. Boomers
are idealists.
Millennials combine
the two: Let's think
of idealistic things
to do, but let's
think of pragmatic
ways to get them
done using people,
interacting with a
community,"
Morley Winograd
told me. Winograd is
the co-author of the
forthcoming book
Millennial Momentum: How a New
Generation Is
Remaking America,
which will be
published next year.
"Mark Zuckerberg is,
right now, the most
high-profile
entrepreneur of this
Millennial
generation."
Born in 1984,
Zuckerberg is a
digital native who
grew up in the
Internet era,
unencumbered by the
analog world, the
broadcast world,
whatever we call the
pre-digital age. The
Internet -- not
television -- has
been at the center
of his life. He was
in middle school
when Google came
out. He could always
instant message
someone; since 2001
he could Wikipedia
something.
Everything, and
everyone, was a
click away, laying
the foundation for
how he envisions the
Web.
"Mark was a blank
slate in some
respects. Looking at
the context of this
digitally
interconnected
world, the world
that he grew up in,
he was able to say,
'Ah, if this is the
way the world is' --
all of us online,
all of us with
connecting with each
other -- 'then this
is how Facebook
should be,'"
Peter Leyden, a
tech entrepreneur
who was one of the
founding editors of
Wired
magazine, told me.
"The ramifications
and consequences of
everything he's
doing are huge,
because the world
that he's in charge
of -- what, more
than 500 million
users on Facebook --
is growing. Steve
Jobs at 26 and Bill
Gates at 26 were not
dealing with the
kind of pressure
that Mark Zuckerberg
is dealing with
right now."
We are living in the
third era of the
consumer Internet.
The first era saw
the rise of portals
like AOL,
CompuServe, Prodigy
in the late 1980s
and 1990s --
essentially confined
spaces where users
read the news,
joined moderated
forums and
participated in chat
rooms. The second
era broadened and
deepened our
browsing experience;
in the past decade,
Google and its
algorithms have
helped us navigate
this new world. The
third era -- the one
we're living in, the
one we're trying
desperately to
understand -- is an
Internet that's
built on people.
Facebook did not
invent this; the
arrival of the
social Web pre-dated
Facebook, of course.
But it's a cultural
and technological
shift that
Zuckerberg tapped
into and effectively
capitalized.
Everything is better
with your friends,
Zuckerberg likes to
say, and he
envisions the Web as
becoming more and
more social, because
we, as people, are
inherently social.
We share. We tell
stories. We make
friends. To that
end, Facebook is
creating, and has
succeeded in
creating, a Web of
its own, launching
products and
applications in
which people's
relationships are at
the core of the user
experience.
Some three years
ago, at the
inaugural event
called f8 (rhymes
with fate),
Zuckerberg declared
that Facebook --
then with 24 million
members, less than
half whom were in
college -- was more
than a social
networking site.
Facebook is a
platform, he said, a
distribution channel
similar to iTunes
and an operating
system like Windows.
Offering a set of
tools -- application
programming
interfaces, or APIs
-- Zuckerberg opened
up Facebook and its
members to
third-party
developers to create
applications. To
many Facebook users,
that meant games
such as
FarmVille, where
Facebook users play
with their friends
in tending crops and
growing a farm, and
more serious-minded
applications such as
Causes.
FarmVille is owned
by the Zynga, which
was created in 2007.
The 1,300-person
company has a
reported revenue
upwards of $500
million.
Almost three years
later -- when
Facebook boasted
more than 400
million members --
Zuckerberg upped the
ante at his third
f8, in April. In
addition to being a
platform, Facebook
introduced the Open
Graph, which
includes features
such as social
plug-ins that make
the Web a more
personalized
experience. Users
reading articles on
HuffPost, for
example, can see
which articles their
Facebook friends
have read, shared
and "liked."
Previously, at the
second f8, in July
2008, Zuckerberg
unveiled Facebook
Connect, allowing
users to sign onto
third-party sites,
gaming systems and
mobile devices with
their Facebook
identity, which
serves as a sort of
digital passport.
This year,
Amazon -- the
Web's largest
retailer --
integrated Facebook
Connect, syncing an
Amazon shopper's
account with his/her
Facebook account.
Zuckerberg was
particularly proud
of this integration
because he admires
Jeff Bezos, Amazon's
founder and CEO.
Taken together,
Facebook Platform,
Facebook Connect and
the Open Graph
present a
fundamentally
different Web in
which being social
and being public are
the norms. There's
something really
efficient at work
here; naturally, I'm
more likely to read
an article that my
friends have read,
in the same way that
I'm more likely to
visit new
restaurants or watch
movies recommended
by friends. As
Henry Jenkins,
the noted media
scholar and author
of
Convergence Culture:
Where Old and New
Media Collide,
told me: "We've
talked about
intelligent agents
for years but no
program has ever
been built that is
as useful as a
friend who knows
what I'm interested
in and has contacts
or sources I don't
know." This is why
Google, with its
still-dominant
algorithms, has
reason to worry as
Facebook's social
graphs expand and
the Web grows more
and more social.
Think of it this
way: Google is to
e-mail as Facebook
is to text
messaging. But
there's also
something
potentially sinister
and dangerous going
on here, entrusting
our information --
our names, our
photos, our
relationships -- to
a company that
profits (handsomely
and increasingly)
from our identities.
But whatever the
motivation --
Zuckerberg,
a budding
philanthropist
who today pledged
to give away at
least half of his
fortune, insists
it's not financial
-- the future of
Facebook, the way it
will continually
evolve and rapidly
iterate, will be
based on how
Zuckerberg sees the
world: how we
express ourselves
and how we connect
with each other.
On Facebook,
everything is a
relationship, and
our relationship
with our first
Millennial CEO is
just beginning.
