The FaceBook Effect

Here we go again with another book about FaceBook. The best part of the book focused on the time when FaceBook started getting really popular, and people wanted to buy the company. Zuckerburg was not convinced that selling was the right choice. But he liked talking with important people, which included potential suitors to buy the company.

The main question during the acquisition talks was what the company was worth. Initial low bids were somewhere around 600 million. Visionaries thought FaceBook could be worth 1 billion. Eventually even Zuckerburg thought the company should fetch over a billion dollars.

Another fun part of FaceBook history was when dissenters formed FaceBook groups. The biggest and most vocal groups were ones that protested changes in the look or operation of FaceBook itself. For example, there was a legal change of the terms of service. The change seemed to imply that FaceBook would forever own anything you share on it. Users rioted, created a FaceBook group, and protested. Zuckerburg caved in, revoking the changes.

Online Game Pioneers At Work

There was a prior book called Game Pioneers At Work. The one I read seemed to be a sequel of sorts. This was documented people who started online gaming companies. The stories were varied. Some were interesting. Like one dude was into building simulator for the government. He leveraged the business into making games for the general public.

Other parts of the book focused on how the companies were created. One guy worked for mega game maker Electronic Arts. Then he saw the advent of the iPhone. He knew he needed to make a company to get an early start on producing games for the iPhone. Turns out after a few years, he sold the company to another Japanese company. But then I think he went back out and formed another new company.

This book helped me pass the time for a couple train rides.