Zuckerberg: Facebook is all about growth
Maybe it's advice he heard from a career counselor at Harvard and took to heart: Do what you love, and the money will follow. For now, what Mark Zuckerberg wants most for Facebook is to see it grow and grow and grow some more, without too much fretting over the bottom line.
In an interview with a blogger for the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Facebook's co-founder and CEO minced no words on the matter: "Growth is primary, revenue is secondary."
Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg at the D6 conference in May.
(Credit: Dan Farber/CNET News)Of course, it could be less a philosophical matter than a practical one for a site that's still sketching out its plans for making money to match its popularity. And bless his heart, even in a tanking global economy, Zuckerberg suggests there's plenty of time for that. He elaborates:
But what every great Internet company has done is to figure out a way to make money that has to match to what they are doing on the site. I don't think social networks can be monetized in the same way that search did. But on both sites people find information valuable. I'm pretty sure that we will find an analogous business model. But we are experimenting already. One group is very focused on targeting; another part is focused on social recommendation from your friends. In three years from now we have to figure out what the optimum model is.
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, said essentially the same thing over the summer--the social network's focus is on growth.
How do the two executives divvy up their responsibilities? Zuckerberg said of Sandberg, who joined Facebook about six months ago:
She is an excellent manager. She is very good in building our international organization. I'm focused on the direction of the company, especially of the product development, and the overall strategy. I spend a lot of time working with engineers and product developers. We work together hand in hand.
He also made it clear who's boss: "Me!"
On Friday, Zuckerberg will be taking part in a "fireside chat" at the Future of Web Apps conference in London.
For the full interview, including Zuckerberg's take on Facebook's Windows Live Search deal, its international growth, and the possibility of an IPO, see " Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: Our focus is growth, not revenue."
Jonathan Skillings is managing editor of CNET News, based in the Boston bureau. He's been with CNET since 2000, after a decade in tech journalism at the IDG News Service, PC Week, and an AS/400 magazine. He's also been a soldier and a schoolteacher. E-mail Jon.
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The more I read this kind of thing the more I think we have some kind of egotist who thinks he can rewrite the rules of economics; or a kind of happy clappy individual who doesn't really have a business at all, but has still managed to find a bunch of followers with deep pockets and questionable judgement.
Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz
Ever heard of the phrase "starving artist"? It's easy when you're at the end of the rainbow and there's a pot of gold, but what about all those sleepless nights oh wait you were spending someone elses money.
In the case of the starving artist ya money will follow when you're dead.
. it seems that Facebook has messed up a lot by inflating their members with plenty of applications that are not worth it. And if they want to monetize better they really have to do something about it.
Traffic/Growth its key factor on a social networks but it has to be planned correctly and taken in consideration the local cultures mentalities of people all over the globe.
From the users end their is a lot of confusion and plenty of SPAM.
www.privacy-center.ru.tc
http://www.articlesbook.com
I would say that 80% of my friends on my facebook account are rarely on anymore.
It was a great idea and people like it but the bottom line is that it is a web application that people are tired of.
I do not understand how this guy can talk about growth when the last time there was growth people got frustrated and stop logging on to Facebook.
There is an old saying "If it is not broken do not fix it.."
Zuckerberg is being greedy but what do you expect from someone who just is about the money.
I think Facebook will eventually become cliche in the future like everything we end up liking..