Mark Zuckerberg speaking at Web 2.0 was at his 2nd best today (IMO, he’s at his best when he’s building Facebook) – Candid, Confident, Charismatic! Despite a great speaker lineup, Zuck dude took the honors hands down.
Here are some of the highlights of his interview:
Zuck – “If you’re building a product that people love you can make a lot of mistakes & it’ll happen in the future too”
That he’s been thinking about bringing Education to Facebook is quite exciting – after all, FB started its journey as an alumni network.
When asked about small/medium companies feeling threatened to work with Facebook – he smartly reminded everyone how big Facebook is & what are the advantages of having access to such large user base!
The comment that drew thunderous applause from the crowd (& me too): “Technology industry is not a zero-sum game. Facebook is not taking away users from other sites, it is building good solutions & attracting new users to technology” – that definitely is healthy & refreshing!
He stayed away from getting his hands dirty using less Apples, Googles. He did not even try to explain Facebook’s unreasonable conditions (which Steve Jobs termed onerous) – How sensible is that!
Zuck tried to stress on preserving interests of Facebook ecosystem & expectations on getting ‘something’ in return, which signals big thinking, something very big. With more than 250 Million people using Facebook every day, imaginations are truly ‘imaginary’.
With calling, location, messages, groups features getting built & integrated into FB, he made it clear that Facebook built these products because they are inherently social (and not just to kill any competition).
Keeping in mind all the privacy concerns, criticism & Facebook fear for startups – Facebook (owing much to CEO Zuck) is getting enormous, truly!
<Update 12/15/2010 – 6 PM EST>
Mark Zuckerberg is the TIME parson of the year – 2010. Full story Here
This is an awesome addition to Facebook & its’ CEO’s PR – even though TIME person of the year is not as significant as it used to be – global recognition does not hurt.
My scribble 