If you are an avid fan of Facebook, then you may also have heard that its founder is Mark Zuckerberg and that he is, to date, is considered as one of the richest men in the world today. His empire is worth billions, and his net worth is also a staggering figure.
Net worth
According to Forbes, the net worth of Zuckerberg as of March 2024 is $174.5 billion, and he is ranked as the 4th richest in the world. Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook at Harvard in 2004 at the age of 19 to help students match names with photos of classmates, took the company public in May 2012 and currently owns about 13% of its stock. In a sign of the company's shift towards the metaverse, Facebook changed its name to Meta Platforms in November 2021. Additionally, in December 2015, Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, pledged to give away 99% of their Meta stake over their lifetimes.
Sources of wealth
The majority of Zuckerberg's wealth comes from his approximately 13% stake in Meta Platforms, formerly Facebook, as disclosed in the company's 2023 proxy statement and regulatory filings up to December 31, 2023. Meta Platforms, known for being the world's largest social network, boasts around 3.7 billion monthly active users, including roughly 3 billion on Facebook, according to a January 2023 company presentation.
When Facebook became public
In mid-2005, Facebook secured $12.7 million in venture capital and expanded its reach to hundreds of universities and high schools. Just a year later, the social network opened its doors to the general public, prompting Yahoo! to make a $1 billion acquisition offer -- a proposal that Zuckerberg promptly turned down.
In 2012, Facebook made headlines with its initial public offering (IPO), raising $16 billion and setting a record for the most successful Internet IPO in history. The epic day that the company went public was on May 17, 2012. Zuckerberg owns these shares through a series of trusts and holding companies, with plans to donate 99% of his shares over his lifetime, as stated in a December 2015 SEC filing. He began selling shares in August 2016 to fund his philanthropic efforts, but these sales are not included in his wealth calculation, as they are directed towards charitable work. The value of his cash investments is determined by analyzing insider transactions, primarily the sale of Facebook shares, along with taxes, property acquisitions, philanthropic donations, and market performance, as per Bloomberg data and company filings.
During the same period, the company acquired the popular photo-sharing app Instagram. Zuckerberg also tied the knot with Priscilla Chan in a surprise wedding the day after the IPO. Over the years, Meta has continued its expansion through strategic acquisitions, including WhatsApp for $22 billion in cash and shares in 2014, Oculus VR for $2 billion in 2014, and several other companies specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) and identification platforms.
How the social media platform started
On Feb. 4, 2004, Harvard sophomore Mark Zuckerberg introduced The Facebook, a social media platform, he developed to connect fellow Harvard students. Within a day, over a thousand users had registered, signaling the start of a remarkable journey. Evolving into Facebook, the platform swiftly grew into one of the most influential social media enterprises ever. Today, Facebook stands as one of the world's most valuable companies, boasting more than 2 billion monthly active users.
Facebook's origins, famously depicted in the 2010 film "The Social Network," remain a topic of debate, with the exact inception of the idea shrouded in mystery. What is clear is Zuckerberg's adeptness at coding and creating buzz, traits that made him a notable figure at Harvard. The prior year, his creation of FaceMash, a website where students rated the attractiveness of their peers, stirred controversy and attention, hinting at the potential of a broader social network.
Early life
Zuckerberg, born on May 14, 1984, in White Plains, New York, demonstrated a passion for computers from an early age. Learning the BASIC programming language at a nearby college, he developed an instant-messaging application at just 12 years old, which his father utilized in his office. Zuckerberg later enrolled at Harvard University but dropped out during his sophomore year to focus on developing Facebook, which grew out of two earlier ventures: FaceMash, a website for ranking the attractiveness of other Harvard students, and HarvardConnection.com, an online social networking platform.
In 2004, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra, the credited founders of HarvardConnection.com, sued Zuckerberg for allegedly stealing intellectual property from their website. The legal dispute concluded in 2008 with a multi-million dollar settlement of cash and stock options. Despite attempts by the Winklevoss twins to reopen the lawsuit in 2011, their efforts were denied by the court.
