Next month will mark the third time that Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg will sit down with me for a Web 2 interview. (The first is above, the second can be found here). Last year Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg joined me, and she was great, but I’m eager to speak with Mark again, given all that has happened in the past year. If you watch his interview in 2007, then a year later, and then his recent appearances, you see a guy who’s really matured as a public figure (and yes, that has a lot of nuance when you run Facebook). Yes, he had a uncomfortable (and famously sweaty) conversation at D earlier this year, but lately I’ve noticed a confidence that I’m going to bet will be on display next month.
Not that we won’t have a few items to cover that will test Zuckerberg’s newfound stage presence, what with congressional inquiries, unflattering Hollywood portrayals, and platform outages to discuss. But if you’re CEO of a very public (though still financially private) company, dealing with these things comes with the territory.
So what would you ask Mark Zuckerberg? Leave your thoughts in comments, and please do the same for Baidu’s Robin Li, Yahoo’s Carol Bartz and Google’s Eric Schmidt. Next up will be Yuri Milner, CEO of DST and major investor in Facebook, Groupon, and many others.
Here are some thought starters for Zuckerberg:
– You recently stated that the company is run basically at break even, and that’s OK. Can you unpack that for us? Investors like DST expect a lot more than that at some point, no?
– While we won’t focus on the movie, it’s a hit, so what does he make of it?
– The question of privacy and in particular user controls. Is he satisfied Facebook has done all it should with the new dashboards?
– Instrumentation – why didn’t “friend lists” take off? The new Groups. Is it working?
– Faecbook Open Graph. Will TripAdvisor type integrations become the norm?
– A Facebook ad network off domain. Is that coming, when?
– Google.me. Thoughts on this?
– Twitter…same. Is the Interest graph of interest?
– What is next for the Facebook product? Mark famously loves to work on the product. So what’s he working on?
Please leave your comments here, so Tim and I can do the best interview possible! Thanks.
I would love to know if we will have the option in the future to monetize our own profiles much the same as Blogger?
I would like to ask Mark if he has plans to share any of the revenue that Facebook generates with the member community that adds content and value to Facebook
@Nightmare Alabama
Just wanted to let you know that Maia68 gives members the ability to monetize their profiles and much more…..
Some of Maia68’s features are:
Members have the ability to sell
Products
Music
Apps
Members have the ability to post classifieds
For each product that they are selling Members can share revenue with
Friends
Groups
Members can transfer revenue to
Friends
Groups
Community Product and Seller Reviews
Members can withdraw their Maia68 revenue into their Paypal accounts
Maia68 has an ad services, and shares ad revenue with members
Members have the ability to easily delete their accounts
Granular Privacy Controls
Cutting Edge Read and Write News Reader
Micro Blogging Service “Conversations” that allows for the creation of content “Channels” i.e. “technews, “worldnews” etc
Community Bank
Did Oprah get a piece of the anticipated Facebook IPO in return for letting Zuckerberg use her show and good will to save face.
Why won’t Mark sell out for 20 Billion, by an island and live happily ever after, like Chad and Steve from Youtube? They started other ventures (i..e F1 racing team). There must be other mountains to climb since Facebook has conquered the internet. I am curious what the drive is to keep going when you are at the absolute TOP.
Carol Bartz: What is Yahoo’s purpose in 10 words or less. Do you use Yahoo? What browser do you use? What do you like about Yahoo and what don’t you like? Will Apple buy you and integrate Yahoo’s services (including search) into MobileMe?
Mark…what search engine do you use? Why? Why aren’t you on twitter?…isn’t twitter after a different business anyways? Ev is on Facebook, shouldn’t mark zuckerberg be on twitter?
Currently there are discussions that pose the question of how a “wired” people are spending less time actually face to face with other human beings. People with children are very aware of this dilemma as many parents encourage kids to get out of the house.
Are Facebook staff involved or concerned withe these discussions?
With the declared arrival of 3rd party ad networks on Facebook like Ad.Ly, is Mark open to looking at ways to incorporate highly relevant ads in-stream? Are they open to outside providers, or is the platform protected territory?
Heading towards 600+M users.. how much is too much?
Let’s say you have 100% of the world now on FB, whats next?
kind of a pedestrian question, but intriguing nonetheless.
You are the CEO and therefore set the vision for the company. Tell us what you’d like Facebook to look like in 1, 2 or 5 years. In terms of size, scale, what is offered to consumers/advertisers …whatever descriptors you like.
Does Mark think he would be a great CEO for Microsoft? If so would he accept the CEO position if it were offered to him?
Ask Mark about Facebook plans in helping children’s education programs.
When will Facebook launch “Schoolbook” for parents to feel safe about their children in a controlled educational environment?
Facebook has successfully been able to recruit top Silicon Valley talent, including key members of the competition. Mark Zuckerberg recently commented as acquisitions as a hiring strategy as the company tries to add more entrepreneurial business leaders to its ranks.
The tension between Google and Facebook is in product (Google Me, etc.) as well as in people. TechCrunch claims Google is now aggressively counter-offering Facebook to prevent further talent loss to the social networking giant.
We hear a lot about the general state of employment in the U.S. and around the world yet the battle for top talent between Facebook and other companies is an interesting topic. Is the search for talent so tight Facebook finds more success with talent acquisitions?
I am curious as to his take on the popularity of the movie made around him.
I would ask him about his monopoly power through “increasing returns.” In other words I might say,
“Given that there are 500 million people on Facebook and as every extra million is added its harder to develop a competitor that could access all the people you might know, what feedback mechanisms will you build into the service so if there are things you do that many consider noxious but feel they have no choice but be on Facebook, you won’t be viewed as an uncaring monolith making money off social interactions while violating the trust of so many (as you have in the past with your tinkering with the privacy settings without many of your members understanding the consequences)? Might you be bothered by being viewed as Big Brother or Microsoft of the 1980’s?
I would ask him about his monopoly power through “increasing returns.” In other words I might say,
“Given that there are 500 million people on Facebook and as every extra million is added its harder to develop a competitor that could access all the people you might know, what feedback mechanisms will you build into the service so if there are things you do that many consider noxious but feel they have no choice but be on Facebook, you won’t be viewed as an uncaring monolith making money off social interactions while violating the trust of so many (as you have in the past with your tinkering with the privacy settings without many of your members understanding the consequences)? Might you be bothered by being viewed as Big Brother or Microsoft of the 1980’s?”