Main » 2011 » December » 2 » TV Preview: Mark Zuckerberg: Inside Facebook, BBC Two, Sunday
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TV Preview: Mark Zuckerberg: Inside Facebook, BBC Two, Sunday
Pete Naughton previews a new documentary on the internet's biggest social
network, in which the BBC's Emily Maitlis meets 27 year-old Facebook CEO
Mark Zuckerberg.
it feels strange to call Mark Zuckerberg, the doe-eyed 27-year-old CEO and
co-creator of Facebook, a business magnate – the phrase evokes pictures of
hard-bitten, rough-handed men such as Henry Ford. But a magnate he is, with
a net worth estimated at $17.5 billion (£11.2 billion) and a sphere of
influence that currently extends to the 800-million-and-counting users of
his social network.
In this wide-ranging, intelligently produced profile of Zuckerberg,
Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis travels to San Francisco to interview him and
other senior figures in the company. She also asks the question on a lot of
investors’ lips: how can Facebook turn its massive popularity into equally
massive profitability? The bulk of Facebook’s revenue comes from allowing
advertisers to mine the vast data it collects about its users, but as anyone
who has followed the fortunes of the company will know, this raises serious
privacy issues. I was mildly disappointed that Maitlis didn’t go into
Newsnight attack mode, especially as Zuckerberg is so rarely made to sweat
on camera. That aside, the programme is a stimulating portrait of one of the
Internet era’s defining entrepreneurs.
Mark Zuckerberg: Inside Facebook is on BBC Two on Sunday 4 December at
9.00pm
