The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That is Connecting the World
We are still at the infancy stage of the Internet transforming into the Social Internet. As investors wait for this company to go public for a chance to invest, I believe this book, The Facebook Effect captures the story as well as any other book concerning this subject. The author, David Kirkpatrick, convinces me that Facebook’s IPO may end up making Google look like a lemonade stand in comparison.
People use Google to find a web destination, Facebook is the destination for its users. Google (GOOG) has to try to covertly figure out how to target customers for advertisers while customers give Facebook the needed information. This is an amazing time we live in and can not imagine a scenario where a Facebook IPO does not double in the first year and is not the most sought after stock for fund managers, just as Google was in the past.
Here is the book that tells the first chapter of the history of this fascinating company.
Not only do I think this book is worthy of five stars, but it is also one of my favorite books I have read out of the thousand in my personal library.
This book has many dynamics. On the surface it is the story of how Mark Zuckerberg created the company Thefacebook (the original name) at Harvard and how it survived, thrived, and then became a worldwide phenomenon. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.
The story of Mark Zuckerberg is one of the greatest entrepreneurial stories in history, on par with Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett. As history plays out he could go down as a genius at the level of Thomas Edison or Henry Ford. As many of these great men did, he started with only his passion and his intelligence. He created Thefacebook by writing the code mostly himself and renting a $35 server. These are very humble beginnings. He created an online facebook like the hard copy ones that colleges gave out to freshmen each year. However, he made it a living one online, where the pictures could be updated. Friends could then see each others profiles, and also who had the same classes with them. It was an instant sensation. He then rolled it out to other schools and it has never stopped expanding right up to the present moment.
Zuckerberg made great decisions about his business. He took in workaholic partners from the beginning, controlled the growth so he could keep up with the strain on his network. He did not allow advertisers to interfere with the experience. His motto: growth first, revenue second.
He moved his company to Palo Alto, California to be near the technology capital of the world, Silicon Valley and Venture Capital. He hired Sean Parker as the first President of his company who knew the ends and outs of retaining power while raising capital. Parker was the one who changed the company’s name to Facebook and was a mentor to Mark.
Zuckerberg continued on with amazing successes like creating the News Feed so members were able to just watch their friends news unfold in a streamer without having to click on their profile page. He created commercial pages that brought businesses on to his site. Later he made Facebook platform where others could build applications to run on. He opened up Facebook to High School students and then the world, one step at a time. He grew his company to a $20 billion market valuation in a matter of years.
This book at its core is the story of how a college kid built a web site in his dorm room that changed the world and consequently made him one of the youngest billionaires known. This is what capitalism is all about. Despite the non-fiction category, the story reads like a captivating novel, with the way he maneuvers around others, winning time and time again, both personally and professionally, while leading his company to many victories over competing rivals.
Many do not know that Zuckerburg was offered millions for a software program he and his partner designed in high school. He turned it down and proceeded to college. Through the book you see that it really is not about the money. Like many entrepreneurs, it is about creating something bigger than yourself, following that dream, and making a difference in the world. He could care less about material things, with the proof being that he lived in a bare apartment and wore simple clothes: blue jeans, T-shirt and sandals even while he was a billionaire on paper.
Mark Zuckerberg seized the time, opportunity, and the moment with his knowledge and skills to finally create the social network site users wanted and investors had been searching for since the late 1990?s. Well, the game changer is finally here, the site that is more vital to have than a listing in the phone book or an e-mail address. This is the new form of communication where the news is your personal news. The users create the content and the experience is personalized for each individual.
I predict mark Zuckerberg is this generation’s Bill Gates and Facebook is just beginning its growth as it changes the internet from a place where you search to a place where the information you care about comes to you.
Stephen Burns a trend follower and break out trader that specializes in the Darvas System. To learn more about him and his trading style you can pick up his recent book at Amazon.com.For more book recommendations follow @SJosephBurns on Twitter.
