Social Networking news and information

Sometimes smart people with a pulse on the youth mindset can dream up and run a successful company, right out of college.  Usually they do this by partnering with people who have more experience or hiring experts along the way. 

Unfortunatly, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and president of Facebook seems hell-bent on destroying a very successful company, simply because he wants to retain heavy-handed control. 


Some weird decisions:

Ginormous Valuation
He turned down a buyout for $750M last year, holding out for $2-4B, reportedly.  MySpace creators jumped at Fox's offered $580M (plus a pretty salary for the founders).  Zuckerman's odd valuation decision made him one of last years' "10 People Who Don't Matter" according to BusinessWeek.  And, NO Zuckerberg you're not ever going to live this one down...

Nepotistic Decisions
Most, if not all, of the people in executive positions are college friends of Zuckerberg's.  They've taken a great deal of grief for the bizarre, to say the least, marketing and PR decisions they've made.  However, it appears the heart is more important than the pocketbook, so the friends continue to wield their power.  NOTE:  I too think the heart should rule, but that's why if I ever start a successful company, I'll hire someone evil to run it.  ;) 


* And, by the way, NO I am not calling Pepper evil.  But he's the guy I'd go to for help finding the minions.

Breaking the Exclusivity - Like Little John says, "What?" 

This is the only thing that makes FaceBook look good compared to MySpace.  So the idea is that their 9.5M users who are loyal due to exclusivity will be happy to get what they can already get on every other social site.  To try to be MySpace only invites the comparison, and with the resounding lead (and no Friendster-end in sight) at 109M members, it's not going to happen, Mark, let it go...

Ignoring the users, then caving in to their demands
While I appreciate his eventual apology, the fact that they implemented a MAJOR change concerning user privacy (on a site that's popular because it's private) without even a warning, I have to agree with Pepper when he says, "You can tell a Harvard man...  But you can't tell him much."

This scathing rebuke aside, I want to see FaceBook succeed.  But I agree with Erin Teeling when she says opening it to everyone will kill it. 

Either he's trying to sabatoge FaceBook (not likely) or he's inept at running a business (who knows?).  He has to be credited for a great site, even with it's amatuer 1996-era design.  However, if he wants to be able to cash-in on his baby, he'll have to start treating this like a business and not like the stock market game in high school.