60 Minutes did a good job with a segment on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg considering that Mark had very little to say. He seemed overly briefed by lawyers and PR types and as a result was stiff and uncharismatic for someone who has accomplished so much. Mark is definitely more of a Bill Gates than a Steve Jobs, both of whom also started their companies in their early twenty’s. As Bill Gates has, I am sure over time Mark will improve his television appearance skills.
Mark answered a question by Lesley Stahl on the subject of Facebook having low revenue by saying that he doesn’t have to reveal financials because they are not public. That was but one of many awkward non answers. Unfortunately, Mark seemed unable to engage with Stahl and surprisingly uninteresting.
Also, by the way, I sense a fast one by 60 Minutes producers when Lesley Stahl supposedly got a friend request from a long lost friend within minutes of joining Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg’s typing assistance. Way too convenient!
As to what was said, most of it had already been reported last week due to the CBS publicity machine, but here are the highlights:
– In response to Stahl’s suggestion that Facebook is huge, Mark stated, “It’s not that big.”
– Mark has not let the money change him. He works out of a desk in a room at Facebook headquarters with other computer programmers. He wears worn out shoes with no socks. He lives in a one bedroom apartment alone with a mattress on the floor for a bed. This is a guy worth a reported $3 billion!
– Lesley pointed out to Mark that he labels himself incorrectly as a Harvard alum on his Facebook page. Mark responded with, “That’s true. We don’t have a setting for dropout.” Funny, but it also represents one of the major problems with Facebook, people pad their bios extensively.
– Mark says he is ‘not concerned’ about the lawsuit from some of his old Harvard classmates who say he stole their idea when he founded Facebook.
– Mark stated that Facebook is “pretty effective for them (politicians) in campaigning”.
– In response to question about ads on Facebook and the controversial Beacon project Mark said, “I actually think that this makes it less commercial. I mean, what would you rather see? A banner ad from Bloomingdale’s or that one of your friends bought a scarf?”
It looks to me like Facebook is still struggling to find revenue magic like Google did with Adwords and believes that matching user recommendations up with ads may still be the answer.
