When Scoble Met Zuckerberg
There is a rather remarkable post in Robert Scoble’s blog about some time he spent with Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg while in Davos. Scoble was so impressed with Zuckerberg that he described the walk they took as “one of the highlights of my life.”
Zuckerberg admitted to Scoble that being on camera makes him “freeze up,” which exhibits a startling amount of candor for a CEO of one of the world’s hottest companies.
But Scoble seemed more impressed with Zuckerberg’s intelligence and skill dealing with the top-drawer brass he dealt with at the World Economic Forum, saying, “I wish I had his poise and skills and I’m almost twice his age.” Zuckerberg seems to possess knowledge about almost every technical detail about his social networking site, which is the kind of intimacy we have come to expect from Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Obviously, it’s good company to be in.
Scoble also managed to get some good nuggets about what the near future holds for Facebook. First of all, translated versions of Facebook are going to launch in the next couple of weeks, a project Zuckerberg had wanted to complete sooner but was forced to shelve while they dealt with the site’s rapid growth. Zuckerberg believe Facebook’s biggest growth will come from non-English speaking users in the near future.
Beacon certainly came up, and Zuckerberg admitted error but is determined to come back with a refurbished version that is handled in a far different manner than previously. Zuckerberg admitted to Scoble that he only seems to communicate with his the Facebook community when something goes wrong, and would like build better relationships in the future with journalists, bloggers, and Facebook users.
Scoble’s post about Zuckerberg seems to confirm the prevailing wisdom about the young CEO: he is extremely intelligent, quite gracious, and eminently capable, but is still learning how to communicate with the public. When his shyness wears off and he becomes more comfortable with his role, watch out.
Technorati Tags: robert scoble, mark zuckerberg, sergey brin, larry page, davos, world economic forum, facebook
