Mark Zuckerberg co-founded “Thefacebook” in 2004 as a project to connect Harvard University students. When the platform’s popularity exploded, he and other co-founders decided to open it for everyone.
In an interview from 2005, Zuckerberg, who was just 21 years old at the time, opened up about the experience and revealed that he gets several marriage proposals in a week.
What Happened: The interview, which was taken by corresponded David Pogue and originally broadcasted on "CBS Sunday Morning" in July 2005, featured four young entrepreneurs of the time: Zuckerberg, Blake Ross, Robin Liss, and Wayne Chang.
During the interview, Zuckerberg explained the Facebook experience saying users can look up a person here and check out how they portray themselves by looking at their photograph, courses, sports teams, clubs, and friends.
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He also said when people go out and meet someone but don't know much about them, they also go to Facebook to see their snapshots and other information.
The facebook.com became incredibly addictive in less than a year. "We’ve gone from having around 150,000 people in the fall to right around three million now. So that's pretty cool," Zuckerberg said.
In May 2005, Silicon Valley-based Accel Partners announced an investment of $13 million into thefacebook.com, which was only 15 months old then.
It was then Zuckerberg said, "We get a lot of feedback saying like how much people love the site. I get a couple of marriage proposals each day."
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Why It Matters: Zuckerberg today has a net worth of $179 billion, making him the fourth richest person in the world. Facebook became a publicly traded company in 2012, eight years after its launch. A day after, Zuckerberg married his long-time girlfriend, Priscilla Chan in a surprise outdoor ceremony, according to People.
In 2015, the couple welcomed their first child together and named her Maxima Chan Zuckerberg. After almost two years August Chan Zuckerberg was born in August 2017 and last year in March, the couple had their third child Aurelia Chan Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg announced in 2021 that Facebook is changing its corporate name to "Meta." His company currently has a market capitalization of $1.287 trillion, making it one of the top 10 valuable companies in the world.
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