While reading the second part of The Facebook Effect, I pondered the life of Zuckerberg and his Facebook entourage. Part of the second section reveals the story of how Facebook was funded. These young men, age 21 at the oldest were dealing with venture capitalists, working out deals to evolve Facebook. I could not imagine how promising and exciting it felt to be dealing with billionaires like Don Graham, CEO of The Post. Zuckerberg even had an offer of $75 million in which Viacom, one of the biggest media powerhouses today, to buy out the company. Though, whatever offers that came in to invest, Zuckerberg made the right decisions because, "Thefacebook had plenty of money. Now it could build a real staff. No longer would the servers be strung together with baling wire. The real growth was about to begin" (p. 127). Growth is an understatement when it comes to what Facebook has done to the social networking world today. Recently, Facebook announced that they will be incorporating an e-mail service as a little extension to Facebook messaging...Though, it is quoted by Zuckerberg that this won't put Gmail and Yahoo! obsolete, but I can't doubt that Facebook can someday overpower the e-mailing world with the success they have proven.
Further on, it became more and more evident that Facebook was exponentially growing. By having a "company" label on Facebook, Chapter 6 sums up how Facebook became a company, much of it focusing on recruiting intelligent employees, and the increased demands in having ads on Facebook. One thing that popped out out to me while reading was "Facebook High," a considered extension of Facebook to high school students as Zuckerberg and Moskovitz discussed how to expand Facebook, and what to do with graduates from colleges using Facebook. Though, the meaning of this chapter sparks further discussion. The high school extension was the start of specific privacy's on Facebook, such as networks and limited profiles which have re-defined what "privacy" is today compared to past generations. Privacy was re-defined when the "News Feed" was introduced, allowing each user to stalk your friends on every action they do. Surprisingly, at the time Facebook users were indifferent of Zuckerberg's opionion on the News Feed. Users were not interested in stalking their friends, stating that it's invading privacy which sparked chaos such as protests, large Facebook groups against the News Feed. However, today, the News Feed is the essential and most important aspect of Facebook, and browsing your News Feed is no longer considered invading privacy. On the whole, the News Feed is what makes Facebook dominant, and different from every other social networking website. Privacy has changed and has been brought to a whole new level, and Ben Parr, the student originally against the News Feed sums it up perfectly, "We are more comfortable sharing our lives and thoughts instantly to thousands of people, close friends and strangers alike. The development of new technology and the rocking of the boat by Zuckerberg has led to this change...News Feed truly launched a revolution that requires us to stand back to appreciate. Privacy has not disappeared, but become even easier to control--what I want to share, I can share with everyone. What I want to keep private stays in my head." (p. 214)
For the most part, Facebook was being pursued like a criminal in a car chase. It had seemed like Viacom and Yahoo never stopped offering deals to Zuckerberg to take over the company, but from his CEO lessons and his mindset of having rare ideas, Zuckerberg baited these billionaires until they couldn't offer more and kept the company. Even $1 billion cash did not fully intrigue Zuckerberg, and thankfully it didn't, otherwise the social networking world would not be the same.
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