February 25th, 2016 A SPECIAL PUBLICATION TO COMMEMORATE THE FIRST AXEL SPRINGER AWARD 4 February 25th, 2016 A SPECIAL PUBLICATION TO COMMEMORATE THE FIRST AXEL SPRINGER AWARD WELCOMEWELCOME Dr. Mathias Döpfner, CEO of the Axel Springer SE Dear Priscilla, Dear Mark, welcome to Axel Springer, entrepreneurship. encouragement for a young welcome to Berlin. It’s a We are presenting the first Axel generation of entrepreneurs. pleasure to have you here. Springer Award to you, Last time we met, we because with Facebook, you discovered a shared Dear Mark, have created the greatest web passion for karaoke. I still of connection in our times. remember you telling me, with congratulations on receiving Facebook has transformed and a self-ironic smile, that karaoke the first Axel Springer Award. enriched our culture, while also is never about skill, only about posing new challenges. How is daring. You may have asked yourself: this power to be used Why another award? Aren’t responsibly? I know you are The skill that has gone into there enough already? Our intensively engaging with this creating Facebook is evident, company’s founder, Axel issue. indeed it has probably created Springer, was an new categories of skill in your entrepreneur, a At an age, in which others are field. As to daring - it is hard to technology enthusiast, thought only beginning their imagine an entrepreneurial leader and someone who professional lives, you have vision paying off more sought to further the advance already become one of the comprehensively. May you of freedom wherever possible. most successful and continue to develop your ideas Today, we are experiencing a enigmatic entrepreneurs of our for working with the creative new era, where entrepreneurs times. Facebook is establishing industries and may your like you are changing markets itself as a distribution platform optimism in technology’s and our lives at an ever and as a fair partner to potential be vindicated. greater pace, aided by the publishers. I hope that you will explosively powerful take the award as an potential of technology. In this encouragement to continue on My very best, vein we wanted to establish this path. I’m confident that the an award encouraging digital award itself will serve as an Mathias 6 February 25th, 2016 A SPECIAL PUBLICATION TO COMMEMORATE THE FIRST AXEL SPRINGER AWARD August 2014: Zuckerberg participates in the Ice Bucket Challenge to raise money and awareness for the deadly disease ALS. 1989: Mark Zuckerberg as a five-year-old. All smiles with his tie. May 2004: Mark Zuckerberg (l.) and Chris Hughes, two of the founders of Facebook, at Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts). Beast, the mop-like dog of the Zuckerbergs, dressed up for February 2016: Valentine‘s. Zuckerberg in Berlin. His physical challenge for 2016 is to run 365 miles. When a U.S. magazine asked me to years. And lots of people were con- Second, Mr. Zuckerberg had the con- ny company called Instagram with no write a story about Facebook CEO vinced that Facebook — and Mr. Zu- viction to believe in this vision even revenue and only a dozen employees. Mark Zuckerberg on the eve of the ckerberg — were headed for a histo- when smart people told him he was an At the time, skeptical observers took company‘s IPO in 2012, the editors ric fall. idiot, Silicon Valley and Wall Street are this as evidence that Zuckerberg had wanted me to answer two questions: But after interviewing many of Mr. full of brilliant people who are highly no business making financial decisions First, did the 27 year-old Mr. Zucker- Zuckerberg‘s colleagues and inves- persuasive, and many of them had al- with shareholder money. But only a few berg, with his apparent lack of concern tors and analyzing Facebook‘s busi- ready dismissed Facebook as a fad. Mr. years later, Instagram would be regar- for profit and fondness for t-shirts and ness and vision, I reached a startling Zuckerberg was undeterred. ded as one of the smartest — and che- hoodies, really have the experience and conclusion. Third, Mr. Zuckerberg had the passi- apest — acquisitions in Silicon Valley skill necessary to lead a global public Not only was Mr. Zuckerberg mature on and charm necessary to recruit the history. company? Or, as some people argued, and skilled enough to lead Facebook. top engineers and executives necessa- Fifth, and most importantly, Mr. Zucker- was Mr. Zuckerberg just a smart kid He was ideally suited for the job. ry to make his vision a reality. You can‘t berg had the patience, commitment, who had gotten lucky and was now out Mr. Zuckerberg, I concluded, had build companies by yourself, no matter and fortitude necessary to resist pres- of his depth? an unusual combination of talents. how talented you are. Mr. Zuckerberg sure from short-term Wall Street tra- And: And these qualities, combined with had already built a fantastic team at Fa- ders and invest for the long haul. That‘s Was Facebook, the super-hyped soci- Facebook‘s massive market opportu- cebook. And he had recruited them how great companies get created — by al network Mr. Zuckerberg had started nity, might one day produce one of the from some of the best companies in the postponing „profit maximization“ and in his college dorm room, really worth most important companies in the world. world. making big, bold investments that crea- the gargantuan price that IPO investors What were these talents? Fourth, Mr. Zuckerberg had the confi- te amazing products and services. Mr. were about to pay for it? Or was Face- First, Mr. Zuckerberg had an amazing dence to make bold decisions that see- Zuckerberg had already demonstrated book the poster child of a dangerous long-term vision. His goal was nothing med crazy to everyone else. Just befo- his willingness to put Facebook‘s pro- and crazy new tech bubble? less than to connect everyone in the re the IPO, for example, Mr. Zuckerberg duct over its profit. Those questions had been debated for world. decided to drop $1 billion to buy a ti- In short, I concluded, Mark Zuckerberg 7 February 2016: Just a few December 2010: days ago, Mark Zucker- Mark Zuckerberg berg held a speech during was named Time the Mobile World Congress magazine‘s in Barcelona, talking about „Person of the future of virtual reality the Year“. and its future as „the most social plattform“. April 2011: U.S. President Barack Obama with Mark Zucker- berg during a live web cast at the Facebook Head- quarters in Menlo Park, California. May 19, 2012: Mark Zuckerberg marries Priscilla Chan – a day after the IPO of Facebook. They had met nine years earlier at a party hosted by Mark‘s fraternity in 2003. December 2015: Proud parents. Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan with their baby daughter Maxima („Max“). had the same „right stuff“ that had hel- More than 1/7th of the people on the Facebook‘s Oculus Rift virtual reality From the early days of Facebook, Mark ped similarly youthful entrepreneurs like planet — 1+ billion — now use Face- system.) Zuckerberg has believed that great Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos build world- book every day. Hundreds of millions In addition to proving himself capable companies can do more than create va- changing companies and reward long- more use other services that Face- of leading one of the world‘s great com- lue for shareholders. Great companies, term shareholders with great returns. book has bought or invented, including panies, the now 31-year old Mr. Zucker- Mr. Zuckerberg has demonstrated, can Well, the magazine printed my story. Instagram. berg has also already inspired an entire also create value for employees, custo- And, at first, it looked like the skeptics Facebook has done no less than crea- generation with his humanity and gene- mers, and society. might be right. te an entirely new way for humans to rosity. Far from being a „reclusive billio- In so doing, these great companies, In the months after Facebook‘s IPO, its communicate and share information. It naire“, Mr. Zuckerberg and his wife Pris- when led by great people, truly can stock plummeted. Investors who igno- has created a vast and powerful media cilla Chan have shared intimate personal change the world. red Mr. Zuckerberg‘s promise that Fa- distribution network. It has also alrea- details with the world (via Facebook, na- Henry Blodget, CEO and Editor-In Chief of Business Insider cebook would invest in long-term pro- dy acquired — and nurtured — some turally). A picture of Mark changing his jects at the expense of near-term profit other colossal media and communica- daughter‘s diaper, for example, quickly learned the hard way that he was se- tions services, hedging its own future in received millions of shares and „likes“. rious. And many dumped the stock in the process. More recently, Mark and Priscilla pro- disgust. (In my house, for example, my child- mised to dedicate 99 % of their Face- But Zuckerberg stuck to his guns. And ren tell me that „Facebook is for old book shares, an approx. $50 billion for- over the next four years, investors who people.“ But they‘re fanatical users tune, to a new mission — the Chan stuck with him have been repaid many of WhatsApp and Instagram, both of Zuckerberg Initiative — which will in- times over. which Facebook now owns. In a few ye- vest in advancing human potential. In so A mere 12 years after Mr. Zuckerberg ars, instead of watching movies and doing, while still only in their early 30s, launched Facebook, the service has al- playing video games, we may get so- they have set a new standard for philan- ready connected much of the world.