The Facebook Effect
The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World
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4.4 • 73 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The exclusive inside story of Facebook and how it has revolutionized the way the world uses the Internet. “A fantastic book, filled with great reporting and colorful narrative” (Walter Isaacson).
In little more than half a decade, Facebook has gone from a dorm-room novelty to a company with 500 million users. It is one of the fastest growing companies in history, an essential part of the social life not only of teenagers but hundreds of millions of adults worldwide. As Facebook spreads around the globe, it creates surprising effects—even becoming instrumental in political protests from Colombia to Iran.
Veteran technology reporter David Kirkpatrick had the full cooperation of Facebook’s key executives in researching this fascinating history of the company and its impact on our lives. Kirkpatrick tells us how Facebook was created, why it has flourished, and where it is going next. He chronicles its successes and missteps, and gives readers the most complete assessment anywhere of founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the central figure in the company’s remarkable ascent. This is the Facebook story that can be found nowhere else.
How did a nineteen-year-old Harvard student create a company that has transformed the Internet and how did he grow it to its current enormous size? Kirkpatrick shows how Zuckerberg steadfastly refused to compromise his vision, insistently focusing on growth over profits and preaching that Facebook must dominate (his word) communication on the Internet. In the process, he and a small group of key executives have created a company that has changed social life in the United States and elsewhere, a company that has become a ubiquitous presence in marketing, altering politics, business, and even our sense of our own identity. This is the Facebook Effect.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
There's never been a Web site like Facebook: more than 350 million people have accounts, and if the growth rate continues, by 2013 every Internet user worldwide will have his or her own page. And no one's had more access to the inner workings of the phenomenon than Kirkpatrick, a senior tech writer at Fortune magazine. Written with the full cooperation of founder Mark Zuckerberg, the book follows the company from its genesis in a Harvard dorm room through its successes over Friendster and MySpace, the expansion of the user base, and Zuckerberg's refusal to sell. The author is at his best discussing the social implications of the site, from the changing notions of privacy to why and how people use Facebook increasingly it's to come together around a common interest or cause (the eponymous Facebook Effect ). Though significantly more informative, thoughtful, and credible than Ben Mezrich's The Accidental Billionaires, it may be hamstrung by its late entry; the furor over Facebook has more or less subsided, and potential readers are more likely to be using the site than to be reading about its origins.
Customer Reviews
Every entrepreneur should read this!
I was amazed at the depth and breadth of this incredible behind-the-scenes documentary. As an entrepreneur I recognized that it painted an exceptionally different scene than often quoted by VCs: "The Golden rule: He with the gold rules".
Like!
I loved The Social Network, but this book was real. I couldn't stop reading it, I just had to know what Mark was gonna do next. I'm very much into social media so this was bound to interest me regardless. I highly recommend it to anyone curious about how Facebook has became one of the most successful companies ever and why it works so well. I'm excited for the future!
Great Book!
This book is a very interesting one. This is the real story of how facebook began, and not based on the Social Network. Also this book explains tge impact it's had on our world. Worrh the money, worth the buy!