Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg have been a focus of media attention during the past week as Facebook-owned Instagram was valued at $35 billion, speculation arose over the possible addition of a “Dislike” icon to the social network, and e-mails surfaced showing Zuckerberg tried to prevent the making of a recent hit movie depicting his college years.
Zuckerberg paid what was considered a staggering $1 billion for Instagram in 2012 but the service is now worth $35 billion, according to a Citi analyst, possibly making it the biggest steal in business history, Business Insider said on December 19.
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The CEO gained wide attention for paying what now seems to be a paltry sum for the service, which announced last week that it had surpassed Twitter in terms of users, topping out at over 300 million. Its users are also an average of about 1.8 times more engaged than those of Twitter, the report said.
Instagram has outperformed even its most conservative assumptions around user growth and monetization, according to the report.
In another development, social media users recently became excited at the possibility of Facebook adding a “Dislike” button so people can indicate that they do not like certain postings or photos, the Borneo Post said on December 21.
However, Facebook’s CEO poured cold water over the idea when he said that it was out of the question as it was “not good for the community”.
However, the social media guru explained that there should be alternatives to allow people to express more emotions on social media, other than a ‘Dislike’ button, which could trigger an unwanted chain of events like cyber-bullying and hatred, according to the report.
Instead, the team at Facebook is studying the possibility of a “Sympathise” button, especially in cases where users post devastating news about their families or society, the Post said.
Meanwhile, a leaked Sony email has shown that the Facebook CEO did not want to have his college years relived on the big screen in “The Social Network, ” Business Insider Australia said on December 21.
The leaked e-mail is one of about 32, 000 internal Sony messages which were unearthed by hackers in recent weeks.
The Oscar-winning movie, written and produced by Aaron Sorkin, told the story of Facebook’s founding years. Zuckerberg feels the movie got a lot wrong, the report said.
An email sent by Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton on May 30, 2014, says Zuckerberg actually tried to stop the movie from getting made altogether. Lynton pushed back, the report said.
“I said to Zuckerberg when he tried to stop The Social Network, ’No one wants their sophomore year in college examined or portrayed, ’” Lynton wrote to a Warner Bros. executive.
Facebook has not returned a request for comment, the article said.
