Facebook Founder Zuckerberg Named Time Person of Year
December 15, 2010, 10:03 AM EST
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Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook Inc., was named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” today for “creating a new system of exchanging information” and “changing how we all live our lives.”
Zuckerberg, 26, began the world’s largest social-networking site in 2004. The service, with more than 500 million users, has helped people connect with each other and changed definitions of privacy, Time Managing Editor Richard Stengel said in a letter on the magazine’s website.
Mark Zuckerberg’s live with Pricsilla Chan
Zuckerberg created Facebook for college students when he was a sophomore at Harvard University. After opening the site up to people outside of higher education, the company surpassed News Corp.’s MySpace as the No. 1 social network two years ago. Facebook users now post a billion pieces of content, such as photos and messages, every day, Time said.“There is an erosion of trust in authority, a decentralizing of power and at the same time, perhaps, a greater faith in one another,” Stengel said. “More than anyone else on the world stage, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is at the center of those changes.”
Zuckerberg is tied for No. 35 on the 2010 list of the 400 wealthiest Americans, according to Forbes magazine. His wealth jumped 245 percent to $6.9 billion, the largest percentage increase on its annual list, the magazine said.
Facebook, based in Palo Alto, California, lets users share information about themselves and communicate with “friends.” About 70 percent of the site’s users are outside of the U.S.
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