In 2008, Facebook was offered only in English—and struggling to expand internationally. If the company waited to hire translators, it risked giving competitors time to spring up, as they already had in Russia and Germany. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg tried to purchase the German clone, StudiVZ, in an all-stock transaction that would soon be worth billions of dollars; StudiVZ declined.
That forced Javier Olivan, just months into his job leading Facebook’s international growth, to come up with a better idea. Instead of paying translators, he suggested that Facebook ask its users to do the work for free. German volunteers translated the site in just two weeks, shortly after Facebook’s Spanish users did the same. Translating Facebook into French took just 24 hours. The site was operating in 18 different languages within six months.
Translating Facebook was the beginning of the company’s meteoric rise. It was also the beginning of Olivan’s. Over a 15-year career at Meta, Olivan, 45, has become the company’s most effective problem solver, operating almost exclusively behind the scenes as one of Zuckerberg’s most trusted confidants. Now he’s replacing Meta’s second-in-command, Sheryl Sandberg, as chief operating officer.
