Society can’t imagine life without social media anymore. For many, it has become a way to spend free time, earn money, connect with others, and express themselves. Yet, as we scroll through our favorite influencers’ feeds every day, we often don’t think about who gave people all these opportunities. As a young man, the distinguished New Yorker Mark Zuckerberg had no idea that his name would one day stand alongside the world’s most influential people, and his social network Facebook would forever change the internet. Continue reading on new-york-future to learn more.
Everything You Need to Know About the Legend: Key Biography Details and Unexpected Facts
Mark Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984, to an average family in White Plains, a town a few miles from New York City. Mark was the second of four children; his mother was a psychiatrist, and his father was a dentist. In his school years, the future developer was already passionate about new technology and created computer games, though he later admitted they were pretty questionable in quality. However, the gifted boy also had some important projects: at 12, he created a messenger called “Zucknet,” which his father then used to communicate with his assistant from different rooms.
When Mark Zuckerberg started at Harvard in 2002, he already had a reputation as a gifted programmer. As a student, the New Yorker developed an app called “Coursematch,” which let students see which classes their friends were taking. He majored in psychology but never completed his degree, as his true passion was IT, and he was constantly taking extra courses. However, in 2017, at the age of 33, he returned to Harvard and received an honorary degree, becoming a Doctor of Laws. Mark Zuckerberg has often described his professional calling as a “hacker,” and thanks to a program he wrote in college called “Synapse,” which allowed a computer to create its own music playlists, Microsoft became interested in him.
As for his personal life, Mark Zuckerberg married his wife, Priscilla Chan, on May 12, 2012. The couple has two daughters, Maxima and August. It’s rumored that he named his younger child, August, after Gaius Julius Caesar, whom he genuinely admires. It’s no surprise that the developer’s main idol is Steve Jobs.
The Story Behind Facebook’s Creation
Mark Zuckerberg began working on his life’s biggest project in New York in January 2004 with entrepreneurs Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitz. In the social network’s first year, every Ivy League school had signed up, and soon after, Sean Parker joined the team. Zuckerberg’s team decided to rent a mansion in the heart of Silicon Valley to use as their office. After moving, the programmers officially registered their business, and Parker became its president. The domain name “Facebook” cost the team $200,000. On September 26, 2006, the social network became available to any internet user who was at least 13 years old. A few years later, one in seven people on the planet had a Facebook profile.
Interestingly, Mark Zuckerberg is colorblind, which is why he chose blue—the color he sees best—for his legendary creation’s logo.
Facebook actively invests in various startups and technologies, having acquired over 50 companies. The social network bought Instagram because it saw it as a major competitor and didn’t want to lose revenue. The biggest investment Zuckerberg’s social network made was the messenger WhatsApp, which cost a whopping $19 billion.