Best is yet to come, says Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg

 

The 10 years since the founding of Facebook have been an "amazing journey," but the best is still to come, Mark Zuckerberg says.

Zuckerberg, the founder and chief executive of the world's biggest social network, reflected on the anniversary in a posting Tuesday on his own Facebook profile.

"Today is Facebook's 10th anniversary. It's been an amazing journey so far, and I'm so grateful to be a part of it," the 29-year-old Zuckerberg wrote.

"It's rare to be able to touch so many people's lives, and I try to remind myself to make the most of every day and have the biggest impact I can."

Zuckerberg said Facebook succeeded because "we just cared more about connecting the world than anyone else. And we still do today. That's why I'm even more excited about the next 10 years than the last."

He said the first decade was "about bootstrapping this network. Now we have the resources to help people across the world solve even bigger and more important problems."

Zuckerberg said he is often asked if he knew Facebook would become what it is today and he responds, "No way."

"I remember getting pizza with my friends one night in college shortly after opening Facebook. I told them I was excited to help connect our school community, but one day someone needed to connect the whole world," he wrote.

"I always thought this was important -- giving people the power to share and stay connected, empowering people to build their own communities themselves. When I reflect on the last 10 years, one question I ask myself is: why were we the ones to build this? We were just students. We had way fewer resources than big companies. If they had focused on this problem, they could have done it."

Zuckerberg made similar comments in an interview Tuesday with NBC television.

"It's so rare to have the opportunity to touch a billion people's lives... And I really think that the best is yet to come."

On his Facebook page, Zuckerberg said he sees a different role for Facebook in the future.

"Today, social networks are mostly about sharing moments. In the next decade, they'll also help you answer questions and solve complex problems," he wrote.

The network, which has some 1.23 million users worldwide and has grown into one of the biggest technology firms, was planning a low-key celebration.

"Just as we do every year, we will have an internal party on Friday afternoon," Facebook spokeswoman Arielle Aryah told AFP in response to a query regarding the company's birthday celebration plans.

Facebook broke ground late last year on an expansion to its campus in former Sun Microsystems digs in the Silicon Valley city of Menlo Park. The new West Campus was designed by respected architect Frank Gehry.

A Pew Research Center survey released Monday suggests no slowing momentum for the network, even though more than half of US Facebook users said they are turned off by oversharing and didn't like the fact that they showed up in pictures without giving permission.

According to the research firm eMarketer, Facebook has become the second-largest recipient of digital advertising spending behind Google, and is particularly strong in mobile ads.

Ben Harper at the research firm Socialbakers said Facebook has gotten where it is because of its constant innovation.

"It's easy to forget that features such as timeline, graph search and business pages haven't always been there for us to use," Harper wrote in a blog post.

"For businesses, Facebook has become a platform for reaching and engaging with current and potential new customers," he said.

"Facebook advertising has powerful targeting options... For users, Facebook has changed the way we interact with friends, family and our favorite brands. We're sure Facebook has many more innovations and surprises coming in the near future."