A young man with a knack for business

At the age of only 25, this former Harvard student is behind one of the biggest Internet phenomena: Facebook. This web site, originally created in a university dorm room as a directory for students of the prestigious American university, today counts over 250 million users. In 2007, Microsoft endowed the company with a virtual capitalisation of 15 billion dollars, around 11 billion euros, by taking over 1.6 % of capital for the sum of 240 million dollars (168 million euros).
And yet its 2008 turnover is said to come to somewhere between 200 and 300 million dollars (140 to 210 million euros) according to analysts… In 2009, it was the turn of the Russian investment fund Digital Sky Technologies, to inject 200 million dollars (140 million euros) into Facebook to take over 1.96 % of capital.
Is the social network being sold every which way? Perhaps not, for Mark Zuckerman has a decided business sense and he has refused granting Digital Sky Technologies a seat on the Board of Directors. The CEO of Facebook is firm on this aspect, and has already refused a 200 million-dollar offer from an unknown investor wishing to have a say in management matters.
Even if its users continue to grow in number, Twitter – offering new communication uses – rises as a threat to the world’s foremost social network. After notching up a refusal to their offer to take over the micro-blogging web site for an estimated sum of 500 million dollars (350 million euros) in November 2008, the heads of Facebook are now attempting to compete with it. Their last initiative to date: the takeover of Friendfeed at the start of August this year. Created by Bret Taylor and Paul Buchheit, former creators of Google Maps and Gmail, Friendfeed consists of a micro-blogging platform, following the trail of Twitter.
Nevertheless, Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to buy Friendfeed is no doubt not spurred by a desire to gain a few more users, nor even to obtain more interesting technology. According to numerous observers, the idea is instead to recuperate the renowned engineers of the micro-blogging site, techno stars almost all tempted away from Google. What exactly they’ll  be doing on Facebook remains unknown, but their presence provides a certain guarantee for the future for the world’s leading social network.