David Kirkpatrick is the author of "The Facbook Effect:
The Inside Story of the Company that is Connecting the World." Here he gives a knowing assessment of Mark Zuckerberger's
'worthiness' of the Time cover.
"From my vantage point, having chronicled
Facebook and Zuckerberg's story, there is irrefutable logic in recognizing Zuckerberg's uniquely historic impact on the world.
A legitimate question remains—should
it have been this year?—but only because I suspect that he will likely have even more impact next year. And perhaps
more after that. Still, 2010 was monumental
for Zuckerberg.
Here are 10 reasons why:
1) Facebook added
250 million new users, reaching more than 600 million in just seven years—an unprecedented achievement, the fastest-growing company of any type in human history.
It surpassed Google as the Web's top destination.
2) The service was Zuckerberg's idea and
creation. No matter what story The Social Network might pretend to tell, he singlehandedly conceived and initiated Facebook.
I emailed the most important early co-founder,
Dustin Moskovitz, Zuckerberg's Harvard roommate to ask what he thought of Time's designation. His reply: "With my very naive
interpretation of what Man of the Year means, I do think he deserved it, sure."
3) Facebook is transforming lives globally.
It operates in about 100 languages. The second largest country there (after the U.S.) is Indonesia, with 30 million active
users, according to the Facebook Global Monitor, published by Inside Network. The Monitor in November reported that more than
10 percent of the population uses Facebook in 51countries.
4) This is a fundamentally new form
of communication. In every medium that preceded it, we "sent" a message to another
person—telegram, phone call, email, text. But on Facebook you merely do something. The software figures out who sees
it. It is the first time real automation has come to mass human communication.
5) Zuckerberg, as CEO, has always had absolute
and total control over the evolution of this stunningly successful operation. He controls three of five board seats, and thus
cannot be dislodged or overruled. Facebook really is a reflection of his will and his vision.
6) His commitment to the service over his
own short-term self-interest was proven in late 2007 when he turned down an offer from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to buy
Facebook for $15 billion. He would have personally taken home about $4 billion at age 23, but didn't even consider accepting
the offer.
7) With a personal net worth of around
$10 billion, based on the price of recent sales of Facebook stock in private markets
(the company is not yet public), his personal business achievement surpasses anyone his age, ever.
8) Facebook has enormous impact in diverse
realms—including politics, media, marketing, privacy, our sense of identity, and our definition of friendship. Its use
as a political tool by its members, for example, has shaken politics in countries including Iran, Colombia, Egypt, and Italy.
9) Facebook's impact on the Internet has
continued to broaden even outside its own servers. More
than 2 million websites now use various aspects of Facebook's software platform, aiming to capture some of the viral communications
power that Facebook uniquely makes possible. These platform tools include the "like" button now increasingly ubiquitous across
the Web.
10) Zuckerberg pushes Facebook to
continually change and improve its product, and that has kept it growing and relevant.
In April 2010, the company dramatically
extended its platform. In August, it created a new location-based service called "Facebook Places" which enables users to
tell friends and businesses where they are.
In November 2010, it announced a radical
new form of messaging which many experts believe will replace email for hundreds of millions. In addition, throughout the
year it grew its "Facebook credits" product to become the primary way people spend money in games on the service.
Credits could become a sort of global money
inside the walls of Facebook. And a landmark Skype partnership announced in October could make the process of making a voice
or video call dramatically easier—who needs to remember numbers when you will be able to just click on a name in your
Facebook friend list?
Given the increasing pace of developments
surrounding Facebook, it's possible a similar list a year from now will be even more dramatic. Naming any one person Person
of the Year is intrinsically arbitrary and subjective. But Mark Zuckerberg deserves it as much as anyone.
- David Kirkpatrick, 12/2010
