On Computers

A new book, “The Facebook Effect,” by David Kirkpatrick, presents a fascinating story about the rise of the social networking giant.

In 2004, four months after it was created, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, still a college student at that time, was offered $10 million to sell. Amazingly enough (for a college student), he declined. Two years later, he declined to sell again, this time refusing a $1.5 billion offer from Viacom. The site has around 500 million users and still growing. The current market value is estimated to be about $20 billion. This is for a product that exists only online!

Filed under: books, social networks