In his brilliantly reported new book, “The Facebook Effect“, David Kirkpatrick provides a detailed recount of Facebook’s growth since first launching six years ago. One particular story which stood out to us illustrates the Silicon Valley mentality combined with Mark Zuckerberg’s disdain for MySpace.
Moskovitz was more interested in user numbers than historical analogies. Ever vigilant about competitors, he was worried that MySpace had grown from about 6 million members in January to 24 million by now “How are they doing it?” Moskovitz asked one day. “Fuck MySpace,” Zuckerberg replied.
He had a chance to express a similar disparaging view in slightly more polite language directly to MySpace’s leaders shortly thereafter. Zuckerberg and Cohler flew down to Los Angeles, where they sat at a restaurant with Ross Levinshohn, head of Fox’s interactive group for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. He oversaw MySpace. Their competitor was being solicitous again. Levinsohn was cultivating Zuckerberg because he wanted to buy Facebook to add to his digital portfolio. But Zuckerberg was, as usual, just stringing him along. In her book Stealing MySpace, Julia Angwin recounts how Levinsohn seemed dubious Facebook could handle its rapid growth. Zuckerberg was dismissive, both of the comment and of Levinsohn’s business. “That’s the difference between a Los Angeles company and a Silicon Valley company,” he said. “We built this to last, and these guys [at MySpace] don’t have a clue.”
This perspective was something that would stay with Mark Zuckerberg throughout the years. MTV, for example, failed to acquire Facebook for similar reasons, Mark Zuckerberg didn’t want to be owned by a media company. More importantly, Mark Zuckerberg didn’t want Facebook to be owned by anybody else, although he almost conceded to Yahoo! at one point when he was offered over $1 billion in cash for the company.
As we know by now, Facebook eventually surpassed MySpace to become the largest social network (and is growing to become the largest internet property), however it wasn’t always clear that this is how things would pan out.
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You shock value just got you removed from my page. Your content is valuable enough without shocking titles. Seriously?
Comment by Michael Gray — May 17, 2010 @ 7:58 am
I am getting so tired of getting bombarded with the F word everyday. Just because "your a grown-up now" doesn't mean you have to prove it using such a coarse and crude word. To me it show the users immaturity, like they trying to prove they are a grown up and "look at me I can use this word now and look "I'm so mature" – not. Yes you have the freedom of speech, but we also should have a freedom of not having to hear such words. Why do I hate this word so much? It's the word my dad yelled at me many times a day, from my earliest memory (age 4) like get the f out of my life/house etc. So not everyone consider it cool to many it's plain hurtful.
And I am disconnecting from the All Facebook site today.
Comment by Rebekka — May 17, 2010 @ 8:07 am
Um guys. He is just giving you the news and quoting Zuckerberg. I now see an asterisk in the work f***, I'm not sure if that was there before, though. I think that for the purpose of keeping y'alls eyes and minds clean, Nick should make it with three asterisks and one letter.
Comment by Chana — May 17, 2010 @ 8:28 am
And change the URL to not include the shocking, coarse and crude word – it should be "f-myspace" instead.
Comment by Chana — May 17, 2010 @ 8:30 am
Ditto Michael and Rebekka. This is the second blog I've unsubscribed to in the last 24 hours for being unnecessarily vulgar, just because they can.
Comment by David M — May 17, 2010 @ 8:41 am
I just unlike you because of the title of this post.
Comment by leo h — May 17, 2010 @ 8:44 am
Wow, you guys above need to go play with your toys in the sandpit if you get offended by that! Unbelievable! The title is a part quote of what zuckerburg said, and to me it's 150% fine. that title is precisely representative of what the article's about.
Honestly, if you feel you must unsubscribe from a website for a word like that in a post title (regardless of how good the content always is or how relevant it is to that content!)…. my goodness, I find that hilarious
I'm personally here because the content is always of exceptional quality. whats the point in removing yourself for one silly thing that isn't even silly when you think about it?
by your thinking, why dont you go deactivate your facebook account now, because zuckerberg used the F word, you know?
Comment by Rob — May 17, 2010 @ 9:07 am
I love the title. Keep up your good work.
Comment by Tara — May 17, 2010 @ 9:13 am
Y'all are just cracking me up. Getting spun up over a QUOTE by Zuckerberg? Good grief.
Comment by Terri — May 17, 2010 @ 9:45 am
While AllFacebook is a fascinating read, it does (to agree with a number of 'whiners') suffer from the appalling, creepingly insiduous 'swamp' levels of internet journalism:
Poor reporting … the F-word is a perfect example (ruins an interesting read)
Dreadful grammar … blog-style sites with widespread correspondent logins and no editorial control (see above again) let the worst onto the net. I've no worries with the US vs UK English issue; bad spelling and bad grammar is simply lazy and ill educated.
Scandal-Mongering Headlines … the F-word gets the response to the detriment of what could have been a great article. At some stage net publishers will be called to task for their content – corroborated stories, decent reporting, fairplay (both sides) if posing as a news site etc – if not globally then at least under their local journalism ethics.
Phew … sorry! Off my chest
All strength to All Facebook – keep it clean and fair .. and you're doing a great job!
Comment by Chris Merrington — May 17, 2010 @ 12:03 pm
Oh man, the people up there remind me of this Orbit commercial. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEJJUGJZxpU&fe...
If you can't see that the title is a direct quote, and not get over it… then you're the ones a wee bit on the immature side.
Comment by Manny — May 17, 2010 @ 12:21 pm
who fucking cares about cursing?
Comment by woo — May 17, 2010 @ 12:57 pm
OMG seriously? It's a direct quote, not "shock value"… has anyone even bothered to read the entire post or did you jump straight into the comments?
everyone needs to grow the f**k up.
Comment by Luka Kladaric — May 17, 2010 @ 1:54 pm
Ya'll need to fucking grow up.
Comment by Peter Corbett — May 17, 2010 @ 2:18 pm
I'm proud of all the people who spoke out against the profanity; I didn't think you could even get to this site on AOL.
Comment by Derek Pangallo — May 17, 2010 @ 3:16 pm
Who the hell cares about profanity. No kids come on a site like this, and kids that are too young to know what sear words mean shouldn’t be surfing the net by themselves anyway.
If you are an adult and you are truly offended by simple words, then you are truly fucked in the head.
Comment by Luke — May 18, 2010 @ 4:07 am
As someone who was specifically raised NOT to swear and who still tries to avoid it (on occasion, hahaha) I cannot for the life of me figure out why people get so uptight about using man-made words to express frustration (i.e. SWEARING.) It's not the word, it's the intent. Don't believe me? Watch anyone avoiding to swear but using "fake" swear words instead. It's just as harsh and jarring to watch someone angrily yell "oh SHOOT!" as they slam things around (that's an actual example of a woman who insisted it wasn't swearing if it wasn't the ACTUAL word. Guess what…IT IS!!!)
Comment by Ally — May 18, 2010 @ 10:56 am
I'm subscribing just because you quoted the big, bad "F" word! Thank you All Facebook for keeping it real!
Comment by Bob — May 18, 2010 @ 12:03 pm
It's just a word. Grow the fuck up.
Comment by fuck — May 18, 2010 @ 3:47 pm
Rupert Murdoch spends much of his time trying to do harm to Sumner Redstone by having false stories printed about him. His time would be better spent watching after his sex hungry wife's activities.
Comment by peter — June 7, 2010 @ 9:47 am
Fuck the word fuck, and Fuck facebook. gooo Myspace
Comment by Garrett — July 31, 2011 @ 6:00 pm
also to me i like the title!
Comment by dotgolf — October 19, 2011 @ 2:42 am