Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, in a tie? Oh my.
If you know Mark you know he’s a pretty casual dresser. Usually seen in T-shirt, jeans, and sandals.
But not here at the World Economic Forum where we walked around downtown Davos last night for a while before heading into the Time Magazine’s reception. Last year we did a similar walk where I got to know him better.
This year people at the party noted his tie and he explained that he was wearing it to denote that this was Facebook’s “intense” year.
Last year when we walked around Davos they had about 50 million users. Today? More than 150 million with about 450,000 new users joining every day.
This is Facebook’s make or break year. It is the year that will set them up to be one of Silicon Valley’s most respected brands along with HP, Intel, Google or, well, it could be the year that the wheels come off of the train and everything goes wrong.
The tie is his way of telling his team and the world that this is Facebook’s most intense year.
We talked about a few other things too, here’s a selection.
**I gave him heck for kicking off people from Facebook who didn’t deserve the “death penalty,” as I put it. He said that they are always looking at how to protect its system from spammers and bad actors. “We’d rather put up with a few false positives,” he told me. He did like my idea of a less punitive “jail” for first-time offenders, though, so that the team can turn off certain features instead of just killing the account altogether. He also said that his system looks for “outlying” behavior. He said if you behave like an average user you should never trigger the algorithms that will get you kicked off. Of course, that irks me a bit because my usage of social media sites is totally outlier behavior. But, I can see his point. One thing that’s nice about Facebook is that I see very little spam or other nasty behavior.
**Facebook is, he told me, studying “sentiment” behavior. It hasn’t yet used that research in its public service yet, but is looking to figure out if people are having a good day or bad day. He said that already his teams are able to sense when nasty news, like stock prices are headed down, is underway. He also told me that the sentiment engine notices a lot of “going out” kinds of messages on Friday afternoon and then notices a lot of “hungover” messages on Saturday morning. He’s not sure where that research will lead. We talked about how sentiment analysis might lead to a new kind of news display in Facebook. Knowing whether a story is positive or negative would let Facebook pick a good selection of both kinds of news, or maybe even let you choose whether you want to see only “happy” news.
**At the Time Magazine party tons of people came up to him to tell him their Facebook stories. He deals with them graciously and talks to them about features in Facebook they might try. He noted with one such fan that lots of people haven’t played with the privacy settings, which give you control over who can see your photos, for instance. I think that’s really why Facebook is so popular. I know my wife really loves Facebook but hasn’t taken to Twitter or friendfeed. I sense that her ability to control which friends see her stuff is one reason why she’s so enthusiastic about Facebook. The second in command at Time, Michael Elliot said he would be so cool with his kids if they new he was hanging out with Zuckerberg.
**He asked me what I was most excited about. We talked about friendfeed. It’s clear to me that he’s watching friendfeed and learning from it about what works and doesn’t work. We talked about how it let me “sift” through tons of news and noise and pick things out for my friends to read. He’s very interested in that trend and, indeed, took a lot of shots when he added a newsfeed to Facebook. Now, he notes, that is a key feature of Facebook and even the haters have gotten used to it.
**He attended Vladimir Putin’s talk and thought Putin’s talk was interesting. “He is running Russia like the CEO of a big oil company,” Zuckerberg told me. As we talked it was clear that Zuckerberg analyzes how other people run things and is looking for positive things to do with his own company and is looking for what turns him off. He studied Psychology at Harvard and I see that training come out when discussing world events with him. You can also see his understanding of how people work all through Facebook.
**He, along with Tony Blair, will be running the coat check at tonight’s Women’s Dinner. He was trying to rope Jet Li, famous martial arts star, into doing it too.
Anyway, I like the new intensity, but I did note that he was still wearing jeans and had his top button undone. Casual intensity. Sounds like Facebook is growing up, doesn’t it?
I have other photos from Davos up on my Flickr account.
Mark’s upping his style
Mark’s upping his style
Robert,
Great post. Casual intensity should be their new motto. Casual towards giving users control. Let them run their profiles. It is their network. And intense toward making Facebook into a viable business. They need to juice more than .50/CPM rates.
Still though, Zuckerberg seems to be very focused, which bodes well for the company.
Robert,
Great post. Casual intensity should be their new motto. Casual towards giving users control. Let them run their profiles. It is their network. And intense toward making Facebook into a viable business. They need to juice more than .50/CPM rates.
Still though, Zuckerberg seems to be very focused, which bodes well for the company.
Mark’s upping his style
Mark’s upping his style
The haters can say whatever they want, but Mark Zuckerberg is an incredible person for building Facebook into what it is today.
The haters can say whatever they want, but Mark Zuckerberg is an incredible person for building Facebook into what it is today.
Great post! I really enjoy reading these encounter-type stories. It’s great how down to earth people like Mark are even when they have been rocketed into the fast pace fame world. Found your blog through Twitter and plan tome back more often in the future! Caio
Great post! I really enjoy reading these encounter-type stories. It’s great how down to earth people like Mark are even when they have been rocketed into the fast pace fame world. Found your blog through Twitter and plan tome back more often in the future! Caio
Here is the issue with Facebook and disabling accounts: they don’t even bother to reply to you. even after several attempts. Or, best case scenario, you get routed to the Ads department.
They need to make this process more transperent, and allowing people to state their case, offer better ways to contact Facebook.
But, we have to hand it to him, he did an amazing job there.
Here is the issue with Facebook and disabling accounts: they don’t even bother to reply to you. even after several attempts. Or, best case scenario, you get routed to the Ads department.
They need to make this process more transperent, and allowing people to state their case, offer better ways to contact Facebook.
But, we have to hand it to him, he did an amazing job there.
gr8t post Robert. What an honor to have 10 minutes with Mark. You do get around ey
gr8t post Robert. What an honor to have 10 minutes with Mark. You do get around ey
Facebook is much more successful at mirroring real world social situations than Twitter or others – being able to tweak the news feed is big example. You can bump up people you are close to and dial back people who are acquaintances, without them really knowing that you’re doing it and having hard feelings about it.
That’s a better model than Twitter, where acquaintances can demand equality of your attention with your friends. That’s what eventually drove me to turn off Twitter after several years of use. With Twitter, your friendship is either on or off. Black or white. That’s not a reflection of the real world, where you spend some time with some friends and some time with others, and you can be acquainted with people you enjoy spending time with occasionally – but they’re different enough than you that you don’t want to interact every day.
Another real-world social situation I’d like to see Facebook model is a “cloak of invisibility” scenario – being able to share items with some friends and not others. That might require them to allow “tiers” of friends – Flickr does this a bit with contacts – allowing you to tag some people as family, some as friends, some as general contacts.
Facebook is much more successful at mirroring real world social situations than Twitter or others – being able to tweak the news feed is big example. You can bump up people you are close to and dial back people who are acquaintances, without them really knowing that you’re doing it and having hard feelings about it.
That’s a better model than Twitter, where acquaintances can demand equality of your attention with your friends. That’s what eventually drove me to turn off Twitter after several years of use. With Twitter, your friendship is either on or off. Black or white. That’s not a reflection of the real world, where you spend some time with some friends and some time with others, and you can be acquainted with people you enjoy spending time with occasionally – but they’re different enough than you that you don’t want to interact every day.
Another real-world social situation I’d like to see Facebook model is a “cloak of invisibility” scenario – being able to share items with some friends and not others. That might require them to allow “tiers” of friends – Flickr does this a bit with contacts – allowing you to tag some people as family, some as friends, some as general contacts.
Right through this piece I kept getting a sense of Bill Gates. I don’t know if you feel that when you’re with him. I’m not sure why, but the sense or feeling I get reading him is the same as when I read interviews with Bill Gates, whether they be 1980s, ’90s, or 2000s.
Which raises the interesting question, if he is the Bill Gates of this generation, who is the Steve Jobs?
Right through this piece I kept getting a sense of Bill Gates. I don’t know if you feel that when you’re with him. I’m not sure why, but the sense or feeling I get reading him is the same as when I read interviews with Bill Gates, whether they be 1980s, ’90s, or 2000s.
Which raises the interesting question, if he is the Bill Gates of this generation, who is the Steve Jobs?
[...] if you were able to divine the mood of the staff? Robert Scoble has this interesting comment from his talk with **Facebook is, he told me, studying “sentiment” behavior. It hasn’t yet used that [...]
he is smart, there is no arguing that, can he turn Facebook into a moneymaker, the way Gates turned the Windows and Office franchise into cash cows ?
he is smart, there is no arguing that, can he turn Facebook into a moneymaker, the way Gates turned the Windows and Office franchise into cash cows ?
“Sentiment” behavior would definitely be interesting to advertisers.
“Sentiment” behavior would definitely be interesting to advertisers.
Robert, Great piece. Mark seems pretty low key for someone who has reached his level of success. Interestingly, when I tie together my Twitter and Facebook accounts for updates, I get a much bigger response from Facebook than I do Twitter for the same exact posting. I think if they are able to implement this “sentiment” applications, they would be turning Facebook at least partially into Web. 3.0.
Alan W. Silberberg
CEO, You2Gov
@you2gov
Robert, Great piece. Mark seems pretty low key for someone who has reached his level of success. Interestingly, when I tie together my Twitter and Facebook accounts for updates, I get a much bigger response from Facebook than I do Twitter for the same exact posting. I think if they are able to implement this “sentiment” applications, they would be turning Facebook at least partially into Web. 3.0.
Alan W. Silberberg
CEO, You2Gov
@you2gov
[...] great how a single conversation can spark such interest in the blogging world. Robert Scoble recently had a chat with Mark Zuckerberg at the World Economic forum, amongst other things a bit [...]
Robert, talk with you soon.
Robert, talk with you soon.
[...] Michael Dell (video below). However, after hearing Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook compare Putin to a “CEO of a big oil company” I wonder if more sinister Putin-related news is about to break out of [...]
Robert,
Our interview from ConvergeSouth is now posted at SkillTV.net in the IN Crisis Comes Opportunity Section.
Hope you enjoy!
Joel Leonard
SkillTV.net
Robert,
Our interview from ConvergeSouth is now posted at SkillTV.net in the IN Crisis Comes Opportunity Section.
Hope you enjoy!
Joel Leonard
SkillTV.net
A great post Robert. Thanks for taking the time to write it. Glad you “gave him heck for kicking off people from Facebook who didn’t deserve the “death penalty”. I hope he takes notice.
A great post Robert. Thanks for taking the time to write it. Glad you “gave him heck for kicking off people from Facebook who didn’t deserve the “death penalty”. I hope he takes notice.
During the inauguration I did a little social experiement that combined the Facebook statuses of my friends and watching the “feelings cloud” on http://wefeelfine.org/. It would be interesting to see what an intersection of these two would look like.
During the inauguration I did a little social experiement that combined the Facebook statuses of my friends and watching the “feelings cloud” on http://wefeelfine.org/. It would be interesting to see what an intersection of these two would look like.
Thank you, Robert. Insightful interview… as always!
Thank you, Robert. Insightful interview… as always!
Nice blog post. Reminds me of the earlier msft-scoble blog posts that I miss.
I am also happy that this insight did not point me to a video to watch.
I know video is your thing, but I sure do like to read and scan text. Maybe for us readers, you can put more textual summaries of your videos. I am one of those people who never clicks the videos at cnn or anywhere, because I’d rather read about it, and then if I want to watch it, I will. watching happens rarely.
Another article I saw today on PBS that is right up your alley: http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/01/warning-dependence-on-facebook-twitter-could-be-hazardous-to-your-business029.html
Nice blog post. Reminds me of the earlier msft-scoble blog posts that I miss.
I am also happy that this insight did not point me to a video to watch.
I know video is your thing, but I sure do like to read and scan text. Maybe for us readers, you can put more textual summaries of your videos. I am one of those people who never clicks the videos at cnn or anywhere, because I’d rather read about it, and then if I want to watch it, I will. watching happens rarely.
Another article I saw today on PBS that is right up your alley: http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/01/warning-dependence-on-facebook-twitter-could-be-hazardous-to-your-business029.html
[...] from: Scobleizer — Tech geek blogger » Blog Archive Zuckerberg: Facebook … Add this to : Digg it Save to Del.icio.us Subscribe to My RSS [...]
Maybe Mark’s growing up and has had enough of the casual look.
It’s hard to tell where Facebook is going to go next, let’s face it Myspace was the thing of 2007, Facebook was 2008 version and whats in store for 2009….. Twitter???
Interesting article though.
Maybe Mark’s growing up and has had enough of the casual look.
It’s hard to tell where Facebook is going to go next, let’s face it Myspace was the thing of 2007, Facebook was 2008 version and whats in store for 2009….. Twitter???
Interesting article though.
[...] new “sentiment engine” that Facebook is supposedly working on according to Robert Scoble who was paraphrasing a conversation he had with Mark Zuckerberg while walking the streets of Davos. [...]
Robert – can you ask him, or do you know why they don’t give you any way to track the number of video views on Facebook? I love the new HD functionality, but my CMO continually asks me why we post videos there is we can’t measure their reach? I’d pay extra for that feature!
Robert – can you ask him, or do you know why they don’t give you any way to track the number of video views on Facebook? I love the new HD functionality, but my CMO continually asks me why we post videos there is we can’t measure their reach? I’d pay extra for that feature!
[...] de la empresa Facebook le comentó durante una caminata invernal por la ciudad que la empresa está estudiando “el comportamiento de los sentimientos” de los que utilizan ese servicio y lo utilizarán en un futuro cercano. ¿Que harán con ese bagaje [...]
He’s running Russia like the CEO of a Mafia Conglomeration, one the verge of provoking a new Cold War. “Sovereign democracy” is a Russian euphemism for “dictatorship”. Autocratic Russian brutishness, as usual, just not as much allegiance paid to Marxist dogma, considering the economic wreck it produced for most of the 20th Century.
Zuckerberg’s naive pop-psychology, has no place in the geopolitical world, where misinformation and obfuscation are the norm.
He’s running Russia like the CEO of a Mafia Conglomeration, one the verge of provoking a new Cold War. “Sovereign democracy” is a Russian euphemism for “dictatorship”. Autocratic Russian brutishness, as usual, just not as much allegiance paid to Marxist dogma, considering the economic wreck it produced for most of the 20th Century.
Zuckerberg’s naive pop-psychology, has no place in the geopolitical world, where misinformation and obfuscation are the norm.
[...] running with record user numbers Facebook may be facing one of it’s most difficult years yet and Robert Scoble talked to Mark Zuckerberg about the “intensity” that is to come. Love or hate Facebook, this is a great read about [...]
[...] luck Twitter: I’m counting on you and Facebook to work out a monetisation model, as you will drive the next wave of growth which builds the [...]