Source: Public account [Blood Diamond Story]
Author: Wuli Dongqi
Tips: This article is about 8700 words in total, and it is expected to take 17 minutes to read
A hypocritical heart will not have strong legs.
—Shakespeare
introduction
On September 22, 2014, Geek Park hosted a seminar called "Comparison and Dialogue: A Collision of U.S.-China Tech Industries." On the event page, which is now available, Geek Park explains the starting point of the workshop:
In terms of scientific and technological innovation, although China is still following the path of the United States, it was once known as "COPY", but it is undeniable that in the process of following, China's technology companies began to gradually advance from "COPY" to "CREATE", and created many praiseworthy Chinese-style innovative products.
Chinese technology is still in the stage of following the United States, but the momentum of its rise is already emerging. To this end, Geek Park took a group of Chinese technology upstarts to Silicon Valley to conduct a Sino-US technology dialogue. The workshop was held at Facebook's headquarters at 1 Hacker Road in Menlo Park, Silicon Valley.
Among the participants, the most eye-catching was Li Wanqiang, the co-founder of Xiaomi, who spoke in English throughout the whole process. Today, 6 years later, looking back, Zhang Yiming, the CEO of ByteDance, who said that Chinese and relied on translation and communication throughout the whole process, has become a more topical figure.
It's all because of TikTok, and it's all because of Facebook — or more precisely, its founder, Zuckerberg.
On August 1, 2020, Reuters reported that ByteDance agreed to spin off TikTok's U.S. business, and two companies such as Microsoft may take over, and the biggest threat behind this is its competitor Facebook.
On July 29, the U.S. Congress held an "antitrust" hearing, calling the CEOs of four tech giants, Apple, Alphabet (Google's parent company), Amazon and Facebook, to be asked. As a result, a hearing on the antitrust practices of the four companies turned sharp and was asked, "Do you think the Chinese government is stealing American technology?" ”
Apple CEO Tim Cook replied, "From the first-hand information I have, Apple has not had such an incident"; the president of Google replied that "as far as I know, Google has not happened"; the answer of the president of Amazon company is more flattering, saying that "I have only heard of 'stealing technology' from the report, and Amazon has not happened."
Zuckerberg's answer, which represents Facebook, is difficult to accept: "China's 'stealing technology' from US technology companies is well-documented."
Zuckerberg also gave the example of "China's Internet companies are single-handedly exporting values to other countries." Although Zuckerberg did not directly name the company, the discerning people can see that what he said is TikTok, a subsidiary of ByteDance.
At that six-year-old U.S.-China tech dialogue, Zuckerberg, as host, didn't seem to pay much attention to the Chinese entrepreneurs who attended. He himself did not attend, but asked his vice president to speak with Zhang Yiming on behalf of Facebook.
At least 6 years ago, Zuckerberg still had some contempt for China's Internet technology. Contempt for Chinese technology, but attach importance to the Chinese market. A month later, Zuckerberg appeared at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management in Beijing as a new member of the Tsinghua School's Advisory Board , a committee that has repeatedly assumed the role of a bridge between China and the United States over the past 20 years.
For a long time, Zuckerberg has carefully constructed a pro-China image on social media, so that the Chinese people have an excellent impression of this American guy. Since the first Wuzhen World Internet Conference, Facebook executives have been present and always communicate with their peers with extreme humility.
In 2015, Zuckerberg came to Beijing. First of all, he talked with his classmates at Tsinghua University about his ideals, and then showed off his photos of himself running in the morning in Beijing on the homepage, and repeatedly said in public that his wife was of Chinese descent, so he had a natural affinity for China...
Compared with today, such a huge change of attitude has surprised many people, and even disappointed, left a message on his homepage saying "Xiao Za, you have changed..." Some people who perceive that their feelings have been deceived directly call him "Za Man".
Did Zuckerberg really change?
Looking back at Zuckerberg's life, perhaps "life is like a drama, all rely on acting skills" is the true portrayal of Zuckerberg.
From "prodigy" to "scum"
Some people say that Zuckerberg has been a "prodigy" since childhood. Honestly, he does fit that label too.
Zuckerberg was born in 1984 to a middle-class family in New York. The father was a dentist and the mother was a psychiatrist. On his tenth birthday, Zuckerberg got his first computer and has spent all his interests on it ever since. His parents saw that he liked computers and specially hired a college student who did software development as a tutor for him.
Zuckerberg in childhood
Zuckerberg's talent in computer technology grew so quickly that he was still in elementary school, and he was able to sit at a nearby university to audit computer graduate programs without difficulty. At the age of 12, Zuckerberg developed an online messaging software called "Zuck Net" for his father's clinic to facilitate communication between the clinic and customers.
A year later, the all-conquering American Online (AOL) was introduced, and its design principle was almost exactly the same as that of "Zuck Net". It can be seen that zuckerberg has mastered computer design and programming skills at a young age.
In middle school, Zuckerberg and his classmates made a music playback software Synapse that can record the listener's listening habits, which made AOL and Microsoft, who are already business giants, realize the difference in this software, and bid to buy software, while taking Zuckerberg under his command.
Zuckerberg, who is not short of money, did not agree, and he was busy going to college. In 2002, Zuckerberg successfully entered Harvard University to study computer and psychology, becoming a prospective programmer.
In this world, programmers are probably the "laziest" group of people, and they always want to solve problems that annoy them with computer programs. Zuckerberg after entering the university is no exception, his results are not ideal, counted as "scum". He was bored with Harvard's unclear online course selection system, many of which were neither detailed introductions nor familiar to the professors who taught them, and were always confused.
As a "scum" with ideas, Zuckerberg decided to design a more accurate "lazy candidate method", the principle is to focus on a good student, and then follow the good student to choose the same course.
Soon, with the help of friends, Zuckerberg designed this set of "lazy candidate teaching method" program, users only need to click on a course on the web page, you can find out who is enrolled in the course, and then click on the name of a registered student to see which courses he has chosen. The "lazy candidate class" method soon spread at Harvard and was widely praised by the "scum". However, the real reason for the praise surprised Zuckerberg, because many "scum" did not use it to choose courses, but used this program to "bubble girls".
Yes, since you can know who has chosen what course, soon someone will find out which courses the "goddess" has chosen through this course selection system, and then directly apply for the course to increase the chance of talking to the "goddess". Zuckerberg cried and laughed, but he also felt very proud: You are happy anyway.
At this time, Zuckerberg and a few friends were seriously working on an extremely boring website, which was a voting system developed in conjunction with the Facemash program he wrote. The function of the website is very simple, that is, the user uploads photos, two boys' photos and two girls' photos for PK, and then the viewer can choose which one is the most "spicy", and finally ranks according to the voting results.
Surprisingly, such a boring website was so popular that It shut down Harvard's servers, and the school was so annoyed that it not only shut down the website, but also the initiator Zuckerberg publicly apologized for it: "This is an inappropriate move."
This incident proves once again that programmers should never be underestimated for their boredom and overestimated their fun. Zuckerberg in this period, like all idle panicked college students, looked for all kinds of fun things, not seeking fame or profit, but seeking attention. And zuckerberg, who is brilliant, is also keenly aware that behind boredom lies endless business opportunities: in the vast sea of people, we are all eagerly looking for each other.
"Social" may be a racetrack full of possibilities.
"Chinese Son-in-Law"
Compared with his peers, Zuckerberg has actually found the "other half" of his life one step faster than others - Priscilla Chen, an Asian girl who is a year younger.
Compared with Zuckerberg, who was born with a golden spoon, Priscilla Chen's childhood is obviously much inferior. Priscilla Chen was born into a Chinese immigrant family in Boston, and her parents relied on years of savings to open a small Chinese restaurant, and Priscilla Chen was their eldest daughter and two younger sisters. Because her parents were busy at work, the things that took care of her sister were basically done by Priscilla Chen, and before the age of three, she had to step on a small bench alone in front of the sink to brush dishes and wash dishes...
After going to school, Priscilla Chen is the pride of the family, not only excellent in academics, but also helpful, taking care of the family in an orderly manner. And this seemingly weak Asian girl has a huge ambition in her heart: she has longed for Harvard University since she was a child, and has been quietly working on it.
In 2001, with her cleverness and diligence, Priscilla Chen finally got the notice of the coveted Harvard Medical School. But soon after enrolling, Priscilla Chen, who had been a "school bully", felt pressure. There are so many excellent people here, which makes her feel seriously frustrated and has to study harder.
Probably because she was worried that she would learn stupidly, her friends in the same dormitory often dragged her to various parties on campus. At a party, Priscilla Chen went to the toilet, and there were so many people in line that she had to wait. While she was waiting, a tall, thin American boy behind her spoke to her.
The boy was none other than Zuckerberg, who had drunk too much and was also lining up in front of the toilet. In order to relieve the physical pressure, he took the initiative to talk to the girl in front of him. Unexpectedly, this "toilet chat" made the two people hate each other late, the more they talked, the more speculative they became, and they became lovers with each other.
In a chat with his girlfriend, Zuckerberg learned that there are many people in school who are not very sociable, but they are eager to make new friends. This made Zuckerberg suddenly wake up, "Dating is just what people need!" Since everyone likes to make friends, why don't I just make a dating software."
In January 2004, Zuckerberg paid $35 to sign up for a website called The facebook.com. Registered members of this website need to provide personal information, such as name, address, hobbies and photos, etc., and can also use this platform to keep abreast of friends' latest developments, chat with friends, and search for new friends.
In just one year, this new dating app called Facebook instantly went from Harvard to the United States, until it spread to universities in Europe and the Americas, and swept the world. That same year, like Microsoft's creator Gates and Apple's creator Jobs, Zuckerberg eventually became a "college dropout."
No way, Facebook's popularity made Zuckerberg have to leave Harvard and become a full-time entrepreneur in a state of complete ignorance. Needless to say, almost all entrepreneurs have exactly the same experience, and Zuckerberg is the same. However, fortunately, he has a girlfriend who is a psychologist, and he has given him a lot of encouragement and help at key moments.
In 2010, just six years after its founding, Facebook announced that it had more than 500 million registered users and its features were becoming increasingly rich, from message boards, statuses, activities to groups, markets and other publishing platforms to various applications, becoming the world's largest social networking site.
This year, at the age of 26, Zuckerberg appeared on the cover of Time magazine because "he accomplished a task that had never been attempted before: to connect more than 500 million people around the world and build social relationships." ”
With the launch of its own Messenger, as well as the acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram, Facebook truly became the most important social platform in human history.
In 2012, Facebook successfully went public with a market capitalization of $115.2 billion. In 2014, Zuckerberg successfully proposed to his girlfriend of many years, Priscilla Chen, successfully entered the marriage hall, and gave birth to a daughter the following year, and also took the Chinese name of "Chen Mingyu".
Two years later, 32-year-old Zuckerberg, who is the youngest richest man in the world, is sixth on the Forbes list of the nation's richest people for $44.6 billion. Today, the 36-year-old Zach burke has become the world's third-richest man with a value of 100 billion US dollars.
If Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook before, was just an idealistic entrepreneur, when he invested in the capital market of real money, the former idealist became a capitalist. Those little clever people who played in the entrepreneurial period also forced him to deal with one pestering lawsuit after another.
Gray Entrepreneurial Road
With the rapid development of Facebook, Zuckerberg's college classmates have come forward to tear him up. Objectively speaking, many entrepreneurial cooperation in college is very casual and casual. Based on their enthusiasm, the students are willing to work together without a contract, relying on trust in each other. However, if the business is not successful, it is enough, and if it is successful, many of the promises and vows that have been made will be worthless in the face of naked interests.
First, it was the Winkworth brothers, who co-founded connectU with Zuckerberg, who accused them of plagiarizing their ideas and building on what is now Facebook.
The Winkworth brothers, who participated in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games
The Winkworth brothers said that the original idea of "ConnectU" was to connect all Harvard students, so that everyone can communicate and interact through the platform, and they can also set their emotional status on the file, with the goal of expanding to the U.S. market after Harvard laid a good foundation, and the product concept sounded almost exactly like the later Facebook.
At that time, Zuckerberg was only the programmer of the project, but finally took the idea to start Facebook.
Zuckerberg initially strenuously denied plagiarism, saying they just wanted to create a dating site and had nothing to do with each other. Although Zuckerberg eventually used $20 million and 12.53 million shares of Facebook stock to settle with the Winkworth brothers, the details revealed in this have shaken People's trust in Zuckerberg.
It is reasonable to say that in the IT industry, a good idea is actually difficult to really count as an original, and many entrepreneurs are referring to hearing or seeing a good idea, and it is impossible to say who copied whom. There are no specific provisions in the law, it can only be that morally I condemn you and I despise you in character.
But since the Winkworth brothers came out, Devya Narendra, a partner at Harvard Connections, and Alan Greenspan, the founder of HouseSYSTEM, are not lonely, they are all Harvard classmates of Zuckerberg.
Several former partners have accused Zuckerberg of being a "slippery head", not only copying their ideas, but even stealing trademarks. In the information age, everyone has all kinds of evidence of Zuckerberg's classmates and their cooperation in that year, not only a lot, but also a lot of detail. Moreover, there are more than the above-mentioned people who accuse Zuckerberg, and anyway, the lawsuits are one after another, and they are all justified and justified.
Interestingly, several lawsuits have almost always been a version.
First, some people came forward and said that Zuckerberg's classmates were not authentic, plagiarized or copied their ideas. Zuckerberg immediately retorted that I didn't! I don't know! It's all original! Then the other party snapped out a series of evidence. Zuckerberg was silent, saying that everything was left to the lawyer.
In the end, without exception, Zuckerberg quietly took out money to reconcile with the other party, and the plaintiffs put an end to it, which was a great joy for everyone.
The spate of lawsuits probably cost Zuckerberg billions of dollars, and for him, it meant little. However, there are many details in this that you taste, you taste carefully.
In 2010, "The Social Network," directed by David Finch and written by Aren Sokin and starring Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield, received eight Oscar nominations that year. Many people are very excited after reading it, and feel that some of Zuckerberg's behavior in entrepreneurship has been deliberately blackened.
In fact, this is a story that glorifies him with all his might, yes, there are many beautifications. It can be said that Zuckerberg's "real performance" in the entire entrepreneurial process can be less romantic and more gloomy than in the movie.
After all, there are many roads at night, and you can always meet ghosts.
The social empire of "heartless eyes"
Some people say that the development of an enterprise is largely based on the upper limit of the enterprise manager's own pattern and mind. Looking at facebook's troubles along the way, it can only be said that Zuckerberg seems to be weaker in both aspects.
With the growth of Facebook, although there are hundreds of pages of Facebook's privacy policy, its obscurity and fickleness make users constantly question and dissatisfied.
In 2009, Facebook first did not allow users to delete their posts, and then announced that even if users delete their accounts, the platform can still get the account information, these unreasonable policies triggered protests from all users and forced Facebook to eventually have to abandon these two terms.
The following year, Facebook broke another security breach, and a large number of users' private chat records were leaked, which made people very worried about its privacy protection ability. Some media then exposed several of Zuckerberg's chat records, which were later confirmed by himself: "If you need information from anyone at Harvard, just ask me, I have more than 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses." ”
"It's all people submitting to the site. I don't know what's going on. They're just 'believe me,' a bunch of idiots. ”
Zuckerberg was so embarrassed by the incident that he had to come forward to explain, expressing remorse for his remarks and promising to keep user data strictly confidential. Unexpectedly, just two years ago, the Cambridge Analytica incident broke out, and people expressed strong dissatisfaction with Facebook's leak of user privacy and Zuckerberg's way of saying one thing and doing another.
On March 17, 2018, the New York Times in the United States, as well as the Guardian and The Observer in the United Kingdom, broke the news: Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics company that worked for Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, and Strategic Communications Laboratories, a related company SCL) plagiarized and secretly kept the data of 50 million Facebook users.
Everyone's biggest dissatisfaction is that Zuckerberg has repeatedly declared that Facebook will strictly protect user privacy, and tens of millions of user data have been quietly used inappropriately by these companies, and even interfered with the US presidential election, which is not just a matter of integrity.
As soon as the news was exposed, it was even more a stone that stirred up thousands of waves. In April 2019, Facebook was fined $5 billion for the Cambridge Analytica incident that leaked user data privacy, setting a record for fines from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Unexpectedly, after a year, Facebook still paid a total of $650 million to settle with the infringed party on the company's unauthorized use of face recognition because of user privacy issues.
Not only that, but people are even more dissatisfied with the endless incitement of emotions and fake news in the upper echelons of Facebook, which makes users often see a lot of so-called "hot news" on Facebook, and finally they are debunked as fake news. Facebook, which could have flagged content like Twitter to alert users, was indifferent by Zuckerberg on the pretext that he didn't want to be the "arbiter of facts."
On Zuckerberg's personal page, the comment that has long been at the top is actually a photo of the great American director Eastwood. Just the photo reads "Eastwood died at the age of 84", causing many fans to wipe tears and light candles to mourn.
But obviously the old man is still alive?
Eastwood, who starred in "Red Dead Redemption"
Yes, in the face of Zuckerberg's inaction, users have to express their strong dissatisfaction with the proliferation of fake news on Facebook in this way.
So-called, a wave of uneven, a wave of rising. Not just fake news, in 2017, some people successfully bought Facebook advertising space for only $30 to spread racial discrimination and ethnic hatred to more than 100,000 users, and people were even more angry at Facebook's claims against fake news and ethnic hatred, but did not actually do anything.
At the same time, the doubts about Facebook at the helm of Zuckerberg are also reflected in the protection of intellectual property rights. As early as 2011, westlaw, legal data agency, 22 patent infringement lawsuits were received against Facebook, far more than other Internet startups in the same period.
Among those suing Facebook are large communications and Internet companies such as BlackBerry and IPCS (IP Communication Solutions LLC). Most of the lawsuits focused on Facebook's illegal use of the technology it invented and unauthorized changes to the software's own functionality.
Interestingly, Zalbok himself admitted that "we will definitely use the first features of others in our products", which is equivalent to admitting his own plagiarism.
According to relevant data from the United States, Facebook's users have been on a downward trend since 2018, from 67% in 2017 to 60% in 2018.
It can be said that it is Zalbok's own dishonesty that makes the "distrust" brought about by fake news and other issues, the "disharmony" and "boring" brought about by problems such as content, and become the main obstacles to Facebook's development.
Leaving Facebook mired in a crisis of public trust, Zuckerberg's fickle personality is probably to blame.
End
Zuckerberg was once an Internet entrepreneur admired by everyone and another legend in the United States. But when he began to take charge of the multi-billion dollar mega enterprise, his personality was gradually stripped away, and finally only the mask of hypocrisy remained.
Looking back at Zuckerberg's change of attitude toward China, one trouble after another in user privacy and intellectual property rights is ultimately a consideration of commercial interests. With the advent of short videos, people's social patterns have undergone important changes.
When the more expressive and communicative TikTok first entered overseas, Facebook realized the threat of this opponent and immediately launched the benchmark product Lasso. Unfortunately, because of the extremely poor experience, Lasso has been in a mediocre response since its launch, and it quickly disappeared.
Seeing TikTok grow hotter and more, endangering his social empire. The reluctant Zuckerberg quietly bundled a short video function Reels on Instagram on July 20, and the basic principle is exactly the same as TikTok, pushing the content that users like through big data algorithms.
Because the algorithms and functions are too similar to TikTok, even TikTok CEO Mayer can't help but stand up and accuse Zuckerberg of using the so-called "patriotism" to plagiarize and maliciously compete.
In just six years, in the field of scientific and technological innovation, some changes have taken place: from China following the United States to the United States copying China.
This change is vividly reflected in Zach burke. Zuckerberg, however, didn't care. Either copying, suppressing, or acquiring, killing competitors in the cradle, this is his consistent strategy. When Zuckerberg first acquired Instagram, it was also because he felt threatened by Ins. He took advantage of the fact that he had just completed financing, and although he had hundreds of millions of users, he had not yet had time to realize the opportunity to realize traffic monetization, and easily bought it for $1 billion.
The addition of Instagram not only removes a potential rival for Facebook, but also enriches Facebook's image social function in the mobile social space. Since its inception, Zuckerberg has acquired more than 80 competitive companies in a row, maintaining its monopoly position in the social field.
Most of the companies that were acquired were: the core talent was pulled out, and the company never had the opportunity to turn around and pose no threat to Facebook. As a member of the capital market, behind the glory of Zuckerberg's social empire is a hypocritical morality and a monopoly model where interests are paramount, and it is also the real face under the mask of his friendliness.
The biggest threat of TikTok to Facebook is that when influencers became an emerging marketing method, the rise of many TikTok content platform influencers attracted the attention of advertisers, which directly led to a sharp decline in Facebook's advertising business year by year.
The emergence of TikTok can be said to not only move the Facebook cake, but even the people who make the cake have been poached, which must have made Zuckerberg feel "heartbroken". Since TikTok can't be acquired because of its special background, suppressing TikTok has become Zuckerberg's top priority.
As a result, Facebook, which is not bad money, first spent a lot of money to dig into the wall, from TikTok to invite excellent creators to Instagram, and then Zuckerberg went around under the banner of "patriotism" to promote TikTok as a "cultural aggression" of other governments in the United States, calling on Americans to resist.
In this way, since late July, many TikTok creators have quietly closed their accounts while saying "see you on other platforms" to fans. For Zuckerberg, getting rid of TikTok is the ultimate goal, and this just caters to Trump's appetite.
The Trump administration's remarks about Facebook have been treasured, not only adding fuel to the fire to help promote it, but also threatening to "ban TikTok" and demanding that the parent company, ByteDance, sell it to US companies, otherwise it will be completely banned.
In a way, Zuckerberg found a good time, and the plan to take advantage of the fire and robbery also succeeded.
In this regard, Zuckerberg has not changed, he is not a "Chinese son-in-law", he is a businessman through and through, he will play different roles according to his own interests.
Everything is a show, and behind it is a benefit.
When he hopes to enter the Chinese market, he shows his love for Chinese culture and appreciation for China. Even playing the "family affection card" that his wife is of Chinese descent is nothing more than hoping to increase the natural goodwill and recognition of the Chinese people towards him. Show Chinese and Beijing morning run are also billboards played by Zuckerberg. If needed, he can show a variety of languages around the world and run mornings anywhere.
When he failed to enter the Chinese market, in order to protect his own interests, Zuckerberg, who turned his face faster than the book, once again sang "Double Reed" with the US government, which was only for the sake of profit from beginning to end.
Zuckerberg can now laugh and see the end of TikTok being shut down, even if it is finally taken over by Microsoft, which is one less strong competitor for Facebook. However, for Facebook, which he runs, a series of behaviors that are not trusted by users due to its own exposure of "fake news", "user privacy leakage", "monopolistic competition", "interference in the election" and so on, may be the problems that he really needs to face.
The sunny smile in front of the person is full of disdainful interests behind it. Some American netizens even found that Zuckerberg went from being a sunny teenager in School at Harvard to becoming a serious expression of CEO, to a robot-like smile at the hearing, and a tragic white face that was secretly photographed surfing on the beach recently. It is somewhat reminiscent of the old Chinese saying "born of the heart".
Finally, let's turn the clock back to June 27, 2015, when Zuckerberg gave a speech at the graduation ceremony of Tsinghua School of Economics and Management. In the speech, Zuckerberg, who took a strong American Chinese, shared his entrepreneurial experience with three stories.
Countless pairs of eyes in the audience looked up at him, hoping to learn from his successful experience in his speech. Looking at the Chinese college students in the audience, Zacker Burke said his last words: "Before you start doing it, don't ask yourself how you do it, ask yourself why you do it." You should believe in your mission. ”
There is nothing wrong with this sentence, but it sounds more ironic today.
END
This article is written by Wuli Dongqi, a researcher of blood diamond stories.
Some references:
1. Under "Facebook", this is the true face of Zuckerberg. NetEase Finance
2. "Zuckerberg's Latest Tsinghua Speech: Success = Believe in Your Mission + Intention + Look Forward" Box Lunch Finance
3. "Chinese Girl Priscilla Chen: Met the Facebook boss at the toilet door, and successfully entered the marriage hall" Sina
All that sees here is true love
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