HAPPY BIRTHDAY FACEBOOK: The Secret IMs Revealing The Mark Zuckerberg Of 2004
Editor's Note: In May 2012, after many years of reporting on Facebook, Business Insider's Nicholas Carlson obtained and published these private communications. As many look back on Facebook on its 10-year anniversary, we thought it worth revisiting the Mark Zuckerberg of 2004 — just another Harvard student far from the billionaire CEO we know today.
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When Mark Zuckerberg was a kid, he networked the computers in his home, and wrote a program so family members could send messages to each other.
Then came America Online, and Zuckerberg, like millions of other kids his age, joined up and claimed a screen name so he could chat with his family and friends online.
When he went to college, Zuckerberg used AOL Instant Messenger to keep in touch with friends and family.
Thanks to four years of reporting, we've been able to view and report on a number of these IMs.
Here, we've collected some of the best of them. These are illustrations of the IMs, not actual screengrabs.
They answer questions like:
- What is Mark Zuckerberg like behind closed doors?
- What was he thinking when, as a Harvard sophomore, he created TheFacebook.com?
- What does he really think of Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder he kicked out of the company?
- What does he really think of the Winklevoss twins, the Harvard graduates who sued him?
Before launching TheFacebook.com, Zuckerberg had to decide whether to work on it or a similar project he was already working on with his Harvard schoolmates, the Winklevoss twins. This is the conversation where he works out that he'd like to do his own thing.
Then Zuckerberg had to decide whether or not to tell the Winklevosses he was working on a competing project. Here, he says he is going to "fuck them."
Zuckerberg talks about his co-founder, and first investor, Eduardo Saverin. Even then, Zuckerberg's emphasis was the product, not the money.
Shortly after launching TheFacebook.com, Zuckerberg joked about how strange it was that users were so willing to share private data with him
When TheFacebook.com launched, the Winklevosses complained to Harvard, and Zuckerberg worried about getting booted out.
Harvard's student paper investigated the Winklevoss-Zuckerberg feud. Here, Zuckerberg talks about hacking into the paper to read the article ahead of time.
Zuckerberg talks about hacking into ConnectU and shutting down user accounts
In part because of a personality clash illustrated here…
…it wouldn't work out between Zuckerberg and Saverin. In this IM, Zuckerberg talks about how he's going to dilute Saverin.
Zuckerberg knew this dilution would lead to a lawsuit. (This IM also reveals that he wanted to sell Facebook and work on another startup.)
Here, Zuckerberg tells a friend why he wanted to boot Saverin
In a conversation with Sean Parker about potential investors, Zuckerberg talks about "dirty tricks" he wants to play on Saverin
Want to put the IMs in context? Read these stories ...
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Nicholas Carlson was Business Insider's global editor-in-chief from 2017 to 2024, overseeing its emergence as a National Magazine Award, Emmy, SABEW, and Pulitzer Prize-winning global news organization with more than 500 journalists reaching 200 million readers and viewers each month.Before that, he was Business Insider's chief correspondent.Carlson is also the author of "Marissa Mayer and the Fight To Save Yahoo!"He was an Executive Producer of "Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV," which, during its debut week, was the most-watched television show on any streamer and the most-watched show in Max history.His investigative reporting rewrote the histories of Facebook, Twitter, and Groupon. He also wrote the award-winning features "The Truth About Marissa Mayer: An Unauthorized Biography" and "THE COST OF WINNING: Tim Armstrong, Patch, And The Struggle To Save AOL."Longform.org named "THE COST OF WINNING" the best long-form business story of 2013.Carlson's coverage of Yahoo won Digiday's award for Best Editorial Achievement of the year in 2014.In 2015 Carlson wrote a New York Times Magazine cover story, "What Happened When Marissa Mayer Tried to Be Steve Jobs." It was a finalist for a Mirror Award for best in-depth/enterprise reporting.Carlson began his journalism career at InternetNews.com and then Gawker Media's Valleywag. He went to Davidson College. Disclosure: Nicholas is an investor in private and public companies and adheres to Insider Inc's Conflict of Interest policy, which you can read here.