At TechCrunch Disrupt, CEO and founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg reaffirmed his mission and purpose of connectivity and bring the people of the world, yes the entire world, to the internet and 5 billion people to Facebook.
“I tend to think that its my job to keep us centered on what matters…and we are singularly focused on this mission and give people the tools to share whatever they want. It’s been this unifying theme for us since we’ve been around” he said. “We’ve cared more about this mission than anyone else.”
With 1.15 billion total and 699 million daily active users on his social platform, why would he stop there?
“A billion isn’t a magical number. No one wakes up and says ‘I want to get one-seventh of the world to do something,” he noted.
Moderated by Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch, Zuckerberg then shared his next five-to-ten year vision for Facebook. “Now the focus for us is retooling the company to go take on a lot of harder problems to fulfill this mission…and for the connecting the next 5 billion people it will be really hard because they don’t have internet access. We want to, over the next five to ten years, take a role in building communities and companies.”
The conversation transitioned into defining what the Facebook motto “Build, Grow, Monetize” means today.
Zuckerberg defined “Build” as building apps with identity and to provide an easy way for developers to build apps around Facebook. “Grow” means to help people grow their apps and develop more mobile app installs. “Monetize” revolves around mobile app installs as business owners rely on that application to obtain payment for their business.
“If the industry can build better social apps and [we can] help them build, grow and monetize, I feel really good.”
Arrington shifted Zuckerberg to a more personal side and discussed his goal to learn something or do something new each year, the culture at Facebook and his childhood hero.
Previous “something new” goals have included, wearing a tie everyday, learning Mandarin Chinese and for 2013, “meet a new person outside of Facebook everyday.”
Arrington asked how the culture at Facebook follows a “Move fast and break things,” mindset and sometimes it gets them into trouble.
“[Moving fast] gets us into tons of trouble…values are only useful when they are controversial…moving fast is a value that people can disagree with. What I mean is that I want to empower people to try things out…I don’t demand that every iteration be perfect, but I want to optimize and learn the most and have the best product three to seven years-you can do [that] by iterating quickly, getting feedback, learning, and going from there. We try to move one to two clicks faster than other companies.”
Although Arrington referred to his childhood hero, Bill Gates, as Darth Vader, Zuckerberg definitely had a different opinion, “He ran one of the most mission-driven companies…he put a computer on every desktop and every home…I think he is one of the greatest visionaries that our industry has ever had.”
Zuckerberg’s response when asked if he thinks he can get the world on the internet. “I’m an optimist…you have to be an optimist in order to be an entrepreneur.”
Other topics discussed, privacy issues, content, upcoming releases, Facebook Home, going through an IPO, and much more.
Watch the complete interview at Tech Crunch Disrupt here.
Photo provided by Facebook
