Mark Zuckerberg was interviewed today at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, Texas. This is the second time I have seen Mark Zuckerberg speak in person as I recorded at TechCrunch40. Unfortunately, this time though I was not able to get a seat in the main room where Mark spoke. Bummer. Sarah Lacey the author of a Business Week cover article as well as a book on Mark Zuckerberg interviewed him.
Mark Zuckerberg might have said it best when he called her out by saying:
"You have to ask questions."
As Sarah's conversational interview style at SXSWi was leading and more her own perspective than actual questions and Mark and the audience took note. Mark even had to correct her a few times by saying:
"I never said that."
When
she told the audience he burns his Facebook idea books. I was not the
only one that was saying it as the crowd called her out during the
Q&A section of the interview. She asked:
"Could someone send me why I sucked so bad?"
And someone from the audience asked her for her email to take her up on the offer. I actually felt awkward and bad for her because I am sure it is tough to be on such a stage.
Zuckerberg on changing the World:
Basically Mark
said you don't need a lot of money and clout to do something to make
change in the World and he wants Facebook to be that bottom-up platform
for that movement. Facebook is focusing on building the infrastructure
to support that communication.
Zuckerberg on International Facebook efforts:
Facebook is launching Facebook France tonight.
Zuckerberg on the business & advertising state:
Running
the business around break even. Building a business is the best way to
achieve our goals which is to create a platform that everyone uses to
communicate. The monetization system they are doing is very organic and
give users complete control.
Zuckerberg on Beacon:
The Web is going to be a collection of social services rather than a
destination site. Looking to help create the platform for social
services to connect and communicate both on Facebook and on the open
Web. With the ad system is going to be very niche and organic based on
the content on the site that is already relevant to the user. Looking
to have a lot of the social activities to be done outside the Facebook
walls and that is what they are looking for.
Zuckerberg on sharing information:
We
need to give people complete control over their sharing experience. 20
to 25 percent have their cellphone numbers on their Facebook profile.
Enabling users to control their experience via control is crucial.
Basically, across the board the biggest issues that have backfired did
not offer enough control or did not communicate the controls well
enough.
"People are generally good."
With applications on Facebook if an app gets really spammy then the system will filter out your application. So users are trying to get right up to that threshold. Facebook is going to try and align the applications to change the incentive structure and enabling the community to police the promotion of applications.
Zuckerberg on iTunes killer application rumors:
We talk to a lot of companies and the rumors follow.
Zuckerberg on product strategy:
Facebook is building a product development group.
"It is definitely an interesting time for us."
Zuckerberg on being a tech company:
We
think of ourselves as a technology rather than a media company since we
want to create a platform and so it is fundemental to be technical.
