Facebook’sForm S-1 Registration Statement with the Security and Exchange Commissionincludes point on the IPO itself and the company ’s financial condition as well as aletter from founder and CEO Mark Zuckerbergto current and possible shareholder – aka the whole world . It discusses the company ’s business and technological philosophy and what Zuckerberg hollo its “ social mission ” – i.e. , “ to make the existence more assailable and connected . ”
Statements like these serve as a pronunciamento , a declaration , a founding text file for the fellowship and its future . It ’s useful to ante up them close attending . As Zuckerberg writes : “ We think it ’s authoritative that everyone who invests in Facebook realise what this foreign mission intend to us , how we make decisions and why we do the things we do . ”
Below is the full text edition of the letter , with apposite comment and analysis . Unless otherwise signal , everything in indented blockquotes is commentary , and all emphases ( except for discussion section head ) are mine .
missive FROM MARK ZUCKERBERG
Facebook was not originally make to be a fellowship . It was build to achieve a societal mission – to make the world more opened and connected .
Sometimes to accomplish a social deputation – whether it ’s Google ’s effort to organize the mankind ’s information or Microsoft ’s to put a calculator on every screen background – you need to build a company . And sometimes companies get so tumid , ubiquitous , and profitable that they need to have a social mission to legalise their activity and give them something to wreak towards beyond cashing checks .
We think it ’s crucial that everyone who invests in Facebook translate what this commission mean to us , how we make decisions and why we do the things we do . I will essay to sketch our coming in this letter .
“ I am tired of you multitude misunderstanding Facebook . This is why you should buy into our vision and have us do what we need . ”
At Facebook , we ’re prompt by technologies that have revolutionized how people open and go through entropy . We often utter about invention like the printing press and the television – by merely realize communication more efficient , they led to a complete transformation of many important percentage of society . They gave more mass a voice . They encourage progress . They changed the way society was organize . They brought us closer together .
If you invoke the printing press and you do n’t seem entirely out of your mind , you ’re swing for the fences .
Today , our society has reached another tipping stop . We live at a moment when the bulk of multitude in the cosmos have access to the internet or mobile phones – the raw tools necessary to start sharing what they ’re intend , find , and doing with whomever they want . Facebook aspires to construct the services that give people the power to apportion and help oneself them once again metamorphose many of our core group institutions and industry .
Note that here , Zuckerberg hedges on whether it ’s Facebook that he ’s comparing to the printing press and television or the omnipresence of the internet and fluid phones . On the one hired hand , internet and earphone are “ the raw shaft ” that produce “ the tipping point . ” On the other , Facebook and the servicing it “ aspires to build ” are what will “ once again transform many of our burden founding and industries . ”
It ’s quite a tap - dancing act here . On the one script , Zuckerberg want to evoke a feeling of a rotatory change , like the Parousia of the television or the personal computer . On the other hand , he does n’t want to actually claim credit for social revolutions , nor does he want to make it seem as if this is a hippy - dippy , pie - in - the - sky company . He lands heavily on that last word , “ industries . ”
There is a huge indigence and a huge opportunity to get everyone in the humankind connected , to give everyone a representative and to help transform society for the future . The plate of the technology and substructure that must be built is unprecedented , and we conceive this is the most important problem we can focus on .
Again , bewitching to me that Zuckerberg blab about Facebook as “ infrastructure , ” a word we usually reserve on the internet for fiberoptic cablegram and such . Social web are the new plumbing system .
It also suggest that Zuckerberg sees Facebook not just as a website or even a platform , but as part of the cardinal Robert William Service that shape the future of the web .
We hope to fortify how mass refer to each other .
Even if our mission sounds with child , it starts humble – with the relationship between two people .
Nice : not only is this immediate , personal and apprehensible , but it helps justify Facebook ’s basic topological rationale , symmetry . If I have a relationship with you , you have a human relationship with me . Facebook allow users to “ follow ” each other ’s public updates , but at its core , it ’s never hedged from that original concept , which it inherited from Friendster and other social meshwork . family relationship are a two - agency street .
Personal relationships are the fundamental unit of our society . Relationships are how we hear Modern ideas , realise our world and ultimately gain long - term felicity .
At Facebook , we progress tools to help people plug into with the people they need and share what they want , and by doing this , we are extending masses ’s capacity to build and keep relationships .
People sharing more – even if just with their faithful friends or families – create a more open finish and leads to a undecomposed understanding of the lives and perspective of others . We believe that this creates a greater bit of secure relationships between hoi polloi , and that it help hoi polloi get unwrap to a greater bit of diverse view .
I cerebrate that if there ’s anything Zuck ’s really passionate about , it ’s this : that there ’s something break about how we hide and mask ourselves with other people , and that our life would be better if we were more opened . He ’s had to learn over metre how quickly to accelerate those principles and give masses time to adjust .
By helping people form these connections , we hope to rewire the way people spread and consume information . We think the world ’s information base should resemble the social graph – a web built from the bottom up or peer - to - peer , rather than the monolithic , top - down structure that has existed to date . We also believe that pass on people insure over what they share is a fundamental precept of this rewiring .
“ Rewire ” = our telegram and networks , but also our psychologies . Has Zuckerberg read Marshall McLuhan ?
We have already helped more than 800 million people represent out more than 100 billion connexion so far , and our finish is to help this rewiring accelerate .
We hope to improve how people link up to business and the economy .
We think a more open and connected world will avail make a stronger economy with more authentic clientele that work up better product and services .
No astroturfing , please .
As multitude share more , they have accession to more opinions from the people they trust about the products and help they use . This makes it easier to discover the best products and improve the quality and efficiency of their lives .
Reputation and recommendation – going beyond gaming into something now .
One result of making it easier to find respectable products is that businesses will be rewarded for build better products – ace that are individualize and contrive around people . We have found that product that are “ social by pattern ” tend to be more engaging than their traditional counterparts , and we look forward to regard more of the man ’s products move in this direction .
Our developer platform has already enabled hundreds of thousands of businesses to establish higher - quality and more social Cartesian product . We have see disruptive raw approaches in industry like games , music and news , and we anticipate to see similar flutter in more industries by fresh approaches that are societal by intention .
In summation to building better product , a more undefendable Earth will also encourage business to engage with their customers directly and authentically . More than four million business have Page on Facebook that they expend to have a talks with their client . We expect this trend to grow as well .
If you ’re not on add-in , get on board . Because this is where your customers will expect to find you .
We hope to change how the great unwashed relate to their regime and societal institutions .
We believe build creature to help mass share can bring a more honest and transparent talks around authorities that could lead to more verbatim authorization of citizenry , more accountability for officials and good solution to some of the biggest problems of our time .
By present masses the power to apportion , we are starting to see people make their voices hear on a unlike scale from what has historically been potential . These voices will increase in number and volume . They can not be brush aside . Over time , we expect government will become more responsive to effect and business concern raised directly by all their hoi polloi rather than through intermediaries controlled by a select few .
Through this summons , we believe that leaders will come out across all countries who are pro - internet and press for the rights of their people , include the right to share what they want and the right hand to access all data that mass want to partake in with them .
On the one deal , this is awesome . On the other , there endure China .
last , as more of the saving make a motion towards high - lineament products that are personalized , we also expect to see the egress of new services that are social by invention to address the large worldwide problem we face in job creation , educational activity and health care . We face forward to doing what we can to help this progress .
Our Mission and Our Business
As I say above , Facebook was not originally base to be a company . We ’ve always cared primarily about our social foreign mission , the services we ’re building and the people who use them . This is a different approach for a public party to take , so I want to explain why I mean it works .
I started off by writing the first interlingual rendition of Facebook myself because it was something I wanted to live . Since then , most of the melodic theme and computer code that have cash in one’s chips into Facebook have come from the corking mass we ’ve attracted to our team .
Most great people care in the main about progress and being a part of great things , but they also want to make money . Through the procedure of build a squad – and also building a developer community , advertising market and investor base – I ’ve arise a cryptic taste for how building a unassailable company with a strong economical engine and strong increase can be the undecomposed way to align many the great unwashed to solve important trouble .
Simply put : we do n’t build services to make money ; we make money to work up good services .
gestate profits to be regularly reinvested into growing the troupe , not hoarded or dished out in dividends . Facebook is takingthe Amazon approachto Wall Street : We ’re building something for the future tense . Back off .
And we call back this is a salutary way to build something . These 24-hour interval I call up more and more people require to use service from companies that believe in something beyond simply maximizing profits .
By focusing on our mission and ramp up outstanding service , we believe we will create the most time value for our shareholders and partners over the longsighted term – and this in turn will enable us to keep attracting the best people and build more enceinte services . We do n’t arouse up in the morning with the main goal of making money , but we understand that the best means to reach our mission is to build a strong and valuable companionship .
Note that Zuckerberg is n’t just signal to investors , reporters , and byplay partner with this letter . He ’s also trying to capture the hearts and head of a generation of engineer . If Google does n’t seem so non - evil anymore , Apple seem like Scrooge McDuck sitting on a pile of money , and Microsoft looks like it ’s long disconnect from its original team and founders , Facebook wants to be the spot for mass who want to build thing with the original team that will last long into the future .
This is how we think about our initial public offering as well . We ’re going public for our employees and our investor . We made a commitment to them when we render them equity that we ’d work hard to make it deserving a lot and make it liquid , and this initial offering is fulfilling our commitment . As we become a public company , we ’re making a similar allegiance to our new investors and we will solve just as hard to fulfill it .
“ If I had it my way , we ’d probably detain secret always . alternatively , I ’m give the people around me millions of dollars . I ’m hunky-dory with this . ”
The Hacker Way
As part of build a strong party , we work firmly at make Facebook the best lieu for great multitude to have a big impact on the earth and con from other slap-up people . We have educate a unique refinement and management approach that we call the Hacker Way .
I suspect that if this approach is really alone , it belike does n’t resemble what I think of as anything like “ the hacker way . ” In fact , I suspect both of these things .
The word of honor “ drudge ” has an unfairly negatively charged intension from being portrayed in the sensitive as people who bring out into computers . In reality , hack just means progress something quickly or test the boundary of what can be done . Like most thing , it can be used for good or spoilt , but the vast majority of hackers I ’ve meet tend to be noble-minded people who need to have a positive encroachment on the world .
The Hacker Way is an coming to building that involves continuous improvement and looping . hacker think that something can always be upright , and that nothing is ever complete . They just have to go fix it – often in the face of the great unwashed who say it ’s impossible or are contented with the status quo .
This may have been cut and pasted from a 12 or so unlike pages on agile web development .
Hackers seek to build the best services over the tenacious term by quick unloosen and learning from smaller iterations rather than seek to get everything right all at once . To support this , we have built a examination model that at any give clock time can try out thousands of version of Facebook . We have the Holy Scripture “ Done is expert than perfect ” painted on our walls to cue ourselves to always keep cargo ships .
I love the “ alternative worlds ” approach to software intention . For some cause I envisage Zuckerberg sitting in a elbow room with thou of screens , like Ozymandias in Watchmen learn all the different versions take flight by to look for the secrets of the macrocosm .
Hacking is also an inherently hand - on and participating discipline . Instead of fence for days whether a new musical theme is possible or what the best way to progress something is , drudge would rather just prototype something and see what works . There ’s a drudge mantra that you ’ll hear a lot around Facebook offices : “ Code wins arguments . ”
Hacker culture is also highly open and meritocratic . cyber-terrorist believe that the right idea and implementation should always win – not the person who is skillful at lobbying for an melodic theme or the somebody who handle the most people .
This is a very powerful estimation , and I suspect this may be one argument that come back to haunt Facebook . It ’s very hard as companies and the people who run them get onetime for them to uphold this open , freewheel , anti - hierarchical sort of anti - governance in favor of something more traditionally managerial .
Contrast this too withApple ’s approach of ascribe a DRI or “ directly responsible for individual”for every product . One somebody , his or her visual modality , his or her reputation on the strain .
To encourage this approach , every few months we have a hackathon , where everyone work up prototype for Modern thought they have . At the end , the whole team gets together and looks at everything that has been built . Many of our most successful products total out of hackathons , including Timeline , schmoose , picture , our nomadic development framework and some of our most important base like the HipHop compiler .
To ensure all our engineers share this approach , we require all new engine driver – even managers whose primary job will not be to write codification – to go through a program called Bootcamp where they discover our codebase , our shaft and our approach . There are a circle of folks in the industry who handle engineers and do n’t need to cypher themselves , but the type of hands - on masses we ’re looking for are uncoerced and capable to go through Bootcamp .
Little of this seems to be relate to stockholder anymore . I recollect Zuck might be reprocess material from a society retreat .
The instance above all touch to technology , but we have distilled these principle into five core values for how we consort Facebook :
Focus on Impact
If we want to have the biggest wallop , the best agency to do this is to make trusted we always focalize on solve the most significant problems . It go simple , but we think most companies do this ill and waste a lot of time . We expect everyone at Facebook to be in effect at finding the full-grown problems to forge on .
Move Fast
Moving tight enables us to make more things and hear faster . However , as most companies grow , they slow down too much because they ’re more afraid of take in mistake than they are of losing opportunities by moving too slowly . We have a saying : “ Move tight and split up thing . ” The idea is that if you never break anything , you ’re probably not moving tight enough .
Be Bold
progress bang-up thing means take in risks . This can be scary and keep most companies from doing the bold thing they should . However , in a human race that ’s changing so rapidly , you ’re guaranteed to bomb if you do n’t take any risks . We have another saying : “ The riskiest thing is to take no risks . ” We encourage everyone to make bold decisions , even if that means being amiss some of the clip .
Be unresolved
We conceive that a more open world is a better world because the great unwashed with more selective information can make full decisions and have a greater impact . That goes for fly the coop our company as well . We function firmly to ensure everyone at Facebook has access to as much entropy as potential about every part of the company so they can make the best decision and have the expectant shock .
Facebook famously has undefendable flooring architectural plan and glass walls in its federal agency for this grounds .
Build Social Value
Once again , Facebook exists to make the world more unresolved and connected , and not just to work up a troupe . We have a bun in the oven everyone at Facebook to focalise every day on how to build material value for the world in everything they do .
Thanks for taking the time to read this letter . We believe that we have an chance to have an important wallop on the mankind and build a last ship’s company in the process . I count forrader to work up something great together .
That ’s Zuckerberg ’s assertion of principles for Facebook and its hereafter . Are you surprised ? Intrigued ? Skeptical ? Convinced ? ( Image : Jim Merithew / Wired.com )
Wired.com has been expanding the hive mind with technology , skill and eccentric person polish news since 1995 .
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