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November 28, 2006, 03:07 PM ET
Facebook's Founder Defends the Site's Expansion
It’s been a tempestuous few months for Facebook: The social network infuriated some of its clientele by adding a controversial “News Feed” feature (The Chronicle, September 22), and rumors that the site’s creators would sell the company fueled a protracted “will they or won’t they?” guessing game (The Chronicle, September 21).
But Facebook’s most important decision may have come when the site opened its doors to the unwashed, noncollegiate masses (The Chronicle, September 22). The move seemed to neutralize the social network’s greatest strength — the fact that, to college students, it had the feel of an exclusive club.
Still, Facebook’s founder and chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg, says he’s not worried about alienating the site’s college users. In an interview with Wired Magazine, he paints the move as just another step in Facebook’s natural evolution.
“You know, when we expanded beyond Harvard, there was buzz on campus about how people were upset that it was no longer exclusive to Harvard,” he says. “Then when we were at 60 schools, and we expanded to the next 15 or 20, there were articles in the newspapers at those new schools about how we were not as exclusive.” Of course, neither of those expansions did anything to halt Facebook’s momentum. —Brock Read
Categories: Company-Watch, Student-Life
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