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From Collegiate Presswire (http://www.cpwire.com): Consumer
Following is a transcript of the September 14, 2006 CPNewsLink conference between college journalists and Mark Zuckerberg and Chris Hughes from Facebook. ---------------------------------------------------- moderator OK, let's begin. moderator: Thank you, everyone, for coming to the CPNewsLink online chat this afternoon. We are pleased to have as our guests Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, and Chris Hughes, its co-founder and spokesperson. They are chatting from the Facebook offices in Palo Alto, California. moderator: Today, Mark and Chris will be chatting with our guests about recent additions to Facebook, including News Feed, Mini-Feed, and the reaction among Facebook users. moderator: That said, please welcome Mark and Chris to CPNewsLink! Mark Zuckerberg: hey guys, i'm glad to be here to answer your questions. Chris Hughes: i'm glad to be here as well. fire away. :) moderator: To get things rolling, let's start with a big question... moderator: Why News Feed and Mini-Feed? Mark Zuckerberg: for a lot of reasons, the feed products make sense as the next evolution of facebook. people generally use facebook to get a sense of what's going on with the people around them and understand their world a little better. up until last week, people had to browse around the site and read through people's profiles to get a sense of all this, but with these new products we can surface a lot of that information for people. it makes using facebook a lot more efficient for seeing what's going on around you. <Q>Has there been a decline in membership since the News Feed and Mini-Feed features have been added? Chris Hughes: No, not at all. We've actually seen an uptake in usage and new users. <Q>How did the idea for the News Feeds develop? Chris Hughes: As Mark said above, it was a logical extension of what our users were already doing on the site. You log onto Facebook to see what's going on in the world around you. We wanted to improve Facebook to make that process easier. The nugget of an idea--surfacing the information about your friends that's most interesting to you--was refined over the course of months to produce what you see now. It's a ticker of what the people who are most important to you are doing in their day to day lives. <Q>People at Penn State feel that the news feed was too much. I understand you adjusted the privacy settings, but why offer so much information at all? Shouldn't privacy be offered before the information is released instead of after? Mark Zuckerberg: some people have said they think the feeds are too much, but i think they just surface information that was already there in an easier way. over the past week, we've received a lot of feedback from people that they learned things about their friends that they would have otherwised missed. and since their friends put that information up for them to see, that seems like a good thing to me. i do agree with you about the privacy settings though. we messed that up. we definitely should have given more granular controls before launching anything. we're still working on fixing this. the other night we added the ability to remove mini-feed from your limited profile, for example. we'll probably add more as we have time. <Q>What was your first reaction when you when you first learned of the strong response? Mark Zuckerberg: to be honest, we expected a lot of people to write to us. whenever we change anything on the site, we always get a lot of feedback, and this was an especially big evolution in the product so we expected even more though. it was interesting to see people organize through global groups on the site though, and to see the groups spread through news feed. it was nice to see people use the tools we supplied to create a forum and have an open discussion about these things. after that, we just took people's feedback into account and started building privacy controls. <Q>This is the first major backlash against facebook do you guys believe you have handled it well from a PR standpoint? Chris Hughes: You're right to say this is the most significant outpouring of feedback that we've ever gotten from our users related to one feature addition. The "PR" as you call it isn't really what's important to us--it's how our users feel about the site. We're not thinking that much about how we're handling it "from a PR perspective," but rather how responsive we are being to the people who matter to us the most, our users. <Q>You get negative feedback everytime you change an aspect of the facebook, but rarely backtrack. What was different about the response to the news feed and mini-feed? And how big a role did the facebook groups decrying the change influence your decision? Chris Hughes: We've never heard this much, this loudly. We realized pretty quickly that we messed up in not offering essential privacy controls when we released the new features in the beginning. What our users were saying was absolutely reasonable, so we looked to act as quickly as possible to make the situation better. <Q>Does this defeat or strengthen the original goal of Facebook? Mark Zuckerberg: in my opinion, it definitely strengthens it. our goal is to help people understand what's going on around them, and these products definitely highlight a lot of those things. i think everyone realizes this surfaces more information, but what a lot of people don't realize is that this encourages people to share more too, since now whatever they share will be seen. so we have seen quite a significant jump in people using the site, looking at information, and even posting new information to the site. so overall, despite the reaction, this has been a positive move for us. Mark Zuckerberg: to clarify, when i said "whatever they share will be seen", i meant that it will be more likely to be seen by the people they want to see it. we never show information to anyone who isn't allowed by a person's privacy settings to see it. <Q>It seems that you want to open face book up to a wider range of members, how will this affect privacy from an employee-employer perspective? Chris Hughes: We are planning on opening up Facebook so that you don't have to be affiliated with a college, high school, or place of business to get on. We're doing this because one of the top suggestions we get from our users is "Make it so that my other friends can get on!" But we want to do this in a way that preserves our users' privacy. Unless you're in a regional network on the site, you will notice no difference whatsoever to your Facebook. Only the people in your networks will be able to see your profiles, and even those people can be limited with your privacy settings. <Q>Some Internet experts speculate the news feeds were also created to boost page views and, in turn, ad revenue for the site. What is your response? Chris Hughes: It's funny that you mention that because what we've actually heard more often is the question, "Are you guys concerned this will DECREASE page views?" The thinking seems to be that when you log in, because so much interesting information is consolidated into one place, you won't need to click around and go exploring on the site. At the end of the day, we're not really focused on increasing or decreasing the number of page views for our users. What's more importannt to us is making Facebook the best utility possible for getting interesting information about the people you care about. <Q>Above, Mark mentioned the "next evolution of facebook". What can you tell us about future steps in this evolution, specifically, the idea of opening the site to regional users? Mark Zuckerberg: the idea here is to allow everyone to get their friends on the site. a lot of people have friends who don't have a .edu email address, but they still want them on the site. since our goal is to help people get a sense of what's going on with their friends, we want these people to be able to get on the site too. figuring out a way to get these people on has been difficult though since they don't have email addresses that tell us what network they belong in. however, we now feel that our privacy controls are developed enough that we can allow them to join regional networks. <Q>Certain users expressed that this might have been handled differently if they had certain information about mini feeds before hand. Why was there no warning of mini feed and news feed before the actual initiation of these features? Chris Hughes: In short, we should have done a better job talking to our users about what these features were when we launched them. We also should have rolled out the necessary privacy controls when we shipped them. We messed up. <Q>Chris, you said that you have seen a greater number of new active profiles. Do you attribute that to the "Feed" functions or the start of a new school year? Chris Hughes: It's really hard to tell. It's probably a little bit of both. Mark Zuckerberg: also, an important thing to keep in mind here is that facebook is a tool to help people understand what's going on with their friends and the people around them. i started the site when i was in college, but what it does is really not specific to college. we already have a lot of high school students and alums on the site. a lot of people like the fact that the site is exclusive, and they don't mind that these people are already on there. the site is exclusive because each network is exclusive to the people who belong there, but on the whole many more people than just college students enjoy facebook. <Q>Is there a way or plans for a way to take the "News feed" or "Mini-feed" down from an indidual's profile if they do not want it up? Chris Hughes: We've given users control over what information displays in their Mini-Feeds and News Feed through their privacy controls. As a result, we've gotten a ton of positive feedback from our users saying we've done what they were looking for. If people want us to do other things as well, we'll continue to hear them out. <Q>Mark, how come you never sold out to venture capitalists back in 2004? Mark Zuckerberg: we didn't sell the company because we're really focused on what we're doing and we're not just trying to cash out quickly. similarly, some people think this upcoming expansion is just to make money, but that's not really the point. facebook is a tool that more than just college students can use, so we want to let them use it. if all we wanted was to make money, we'd put up more banner ads, but as you can see we're not doing that. <Q>Could you please comment on the circumstances surrounding the removal of Brody Ruckus' profile and group? Chris Hughes: Sure. The profile and group weren't actually tied to a real user--turns out it was a marketing ploy. Because of that, we took the group down for violating our terms of service. It wasn't because of the content itself. <Q>What's with the quails? Mark Zuckerberg: we like quails. i think it's from the wedding crashers movie. good movie. <Q>Many students are wanting the "old" facebook back--sort of the original look and feel. is that something you're willing to risk? Chris Hughes: The feed features are pretty integral to the development of the site, so we won't be removing them. (The vast majority of our users aren't telling us they want them gone.) Instead, people told us they wanted more control over them, so that's what we've looked to give them. <Q>Is it hypocrytical for people to complain about Facebook when it is 100 percent voluntary and each user can choose how much information they want to post on the site? Mark Zuckerberg: i don't think so. it just shows how important having control over their information is to people. we agree with this too. i think giving people complete control over what they share and who they share with it is important too, which is why we put such an emphasis on developing privacy tools and making sure facebook users know about them. <Q>It seems as though Facebook becomes less private and more global with each addition made to the website. The trend would seem to indicate that workplaces will be more included in the fray, especially as the Facebook generation graduates from college. There are privacy barriers between social networks, but a dedicated person can vault them. Is social globalization your ultimate goal? What makes you think students want that? Chris Hughes: I'd diagree that Facebook is becoming "more global" in the way you're using the term each time we update the site. If you're a user who just wants to stay within one network, perhaps your college, you can still do that. On the other hand, for the people who do want to connect with more people, we're trying to make that possible. <Q>What is the next step then, after mini-feeds and News-feeds? Mark Zuckerberg: probably improving news feed and mini-feed. there's a lot of work we can do to give people more control over what information goes into these, what types of information they want to see, how the information can be displayed better, etc. we always have a lot of work to do improving the site. i don't think we're running out anytime soon. <Q>Is not having an .edu address on Facebook a reaction to the popularity of My Space? Chris Hughes: No, not at all. MySpace and Facebook are really different when you think about it. Whereas they seem to be trying to be a media portal where you connect with a lot of people you don't know, we're aiming to be a social utility where you rebuild the real-life social networks that you already have. <Q>Have the new features affect the possible deals with Microsoft at all? Mark Zuckerberg: nope. we already have our deal with microsoft, and none of this affects that. for those of you who don't know about it, the microsoft deal basically makes it so that microsoft supplies us with our banner ads. this allows us to focus on developing the site and building new things instead of selling banners. <Q>Is Rupert Murdoch gunning for you? Mark Zuckerberg: he wishes :) <Q>Since Facebook is expanding rapidly and more and more people are able to access it, are privacy controls being set in place to undergird this as well? Chris Hughes: Absolutely. As we continue to expand, users will continue to have complete control over who sees their profiles. No one will be able to see your information unless you say you want them to be able to. If you only want the people at your college to see your profile, done. If you only want it to be available to your friends, cool. The idea is that you have complete control. As a user, nothing will be different for you than it was before except that you can invite your friends who don't have .edu email addresses to join regional networks. <Q>I know the numbers are growing rapidly, but what is the estimated number of Facebook users? Chris Hughes: We have over 9.5 million users and are the seventh-most trafficked site on the Internet. <Q>What type of network validation will exist when the site opens to regional users? How many networks will a user be able to join and what type of proof must a user provide in order to join a specific network? Chris Hughes: What type of network validation will exist when the site opens to regional users? How many networks will a user be able to join and what type of proof must a user provide in order to join a specific network? Chris Hughes: sorry about that, hold on let me answer it <Q>Sources say that you have an average of 20,000 new accounts created daily? Do you agree with this number? What do you think makes facebook so popular? Mark Zuckerberg: i'm not going to confirm that number, but we do have a ton of new people sign up every day. the reason is that facebook is a really good tool for understanding what's going on with your friends and the people around you. everyone needs to know what's going on around them. it's a pretty core human need, and facebook helps out with that. one important thing to keep in mind is that needing to understand what's going on around you isn't a college-specific thing. that's why we have a lot of high school students and alums on the site, and why we're continually expanding. <Q>What type of network validation will exist when the site opens to regional users? How many networks will a user be able to join and what type of proof must a user provide in order to join a specific network? Chris Hughes: So these are great questions. Because there aren't email addresses give out by region, what we're doing is we're requiring new users to choose one region to join. Once you've made that choice, you can only change every couple months when you move. It's that inflexible because we don't want users to jump around from region to region, but instead just choose the regin that they actually live in. Users will be able to join one regional network and then authenticate into as many college, high school, and work networks as they can. <Q>What do you guys think of employers using facebook to check on current or potential employees? Chris Hughes: Well, it's not really about whether we're comfortable with that or not. It's up to our individual users. That's why we've made it so that individual users can make it so that their profiles aren't available to alumni or faculty if they don't want them to be. Again, this makes to our focus of giving our users control over what information they share and who they want to share it with. <Q>Digressing from the newsfeed/minifeed discussions, may I ask if you, Mark, have any regrets about how you started, built, and have run the company? Mark Zuckerberg: hey, of course i have regrets. everyone makes mistakes, and since i had no experience building or running a company when i got started, i made a lot of them. but i think what's important is that i try to learn from the mistakes i make so i can do better in the future. take the feed products for example. one big thing i learned is that we need to do a better job informing our users of what we're going to be doing on the site. so now, for the first time ever, we're having an open discussion about how to expand the site before we actually do it. <Q>What's "too close for missiles" from? Mark Zuckerberg: top gun... <Q>Do you feel like the move to open up facebook will cause a mass migration from the system once college students are no longer the only users? Chris Hughes: Well it certainly doesn't need to. As I've said before, as a college user, this move does not have to change your experience of the site whatsoever. If you want to only friend people in your college or you only want people in your college to see your information, that's still possible. Nothing is being forced on you. <Q>Will you ever "find something to put here?" Chris Hughes: haha, i don't know, we'll see. moderator: We have time for two more questions. Thanks for all the great submissions! <Q>Being the seventh-most trafficked site on the internet obviously means there are some financial benefits involved. Can you really deny that money has not played a part in the creation and maintenance of Facebook? Mark Zuckerberg: running a site that does this much traffic (literally hundreds of millions of pages each day) is expensive, so we need to make a bunch of money just to be able to pay for it. that's why we have ads on the site. but as i'm sure you've noticed, we don't have many ads up there, and we make sure they're good ads. there's a lot more that we could do if we just cared about making money. instead, we're really focused on building something great. <Q>When will Facebook open to regional users? Chris Hughes: We're still in the process of making that decision. <Q>Mark, will you FINALLY be my friend? I've requested it SO many times... Mark Zuckerberg: haha. a lot of people have added me and it's tough for me to sort through them all. maybe someday though... Chris Hughes: Thank you guys for talking to us Mark Zuckerberg: yea, thanks for taking the time guys. i hope this was useful for you. moderator: OK, folks. This concludes today's newsmaker conference with Mark Zuckerberg and Chris Hughes of Facebook. moderator: On behalf of Facebook and Mark and Chris, thank you for attending, and thank you for your interest. And, on behalf of the college journalists attending this event, and those reading about it, our thanks go out to Mark and Chris for taking time out of their busy schedules to chat with us today. moderator: If you have additional questions about this story, you can contact [email protected]. They will do their best to respond, but hope that you have learned enough from Mark and Chris to help you with your stories. moderator: Additionally, for your use in writing a story, we will be sending a full transcript of this event over Collegiate Presswire shortly to all of our subscribing newspapers, and we'll be posting a copy on the front page of the CPNewsLink and Collegiate Presswire websites after that. (http://www.cpnewslink.com and http://www.cpwire.com). moderator: As a reminder, we will be hosting additional CPNewsLink newsmaker events throughout the Fall semester, so please keep an eye on the "Upcoming Chats" calendar on the CPNewsLink home page. We will also be posting notification of upcoming chats on Collegiate Presswire. moderator: We hope you enjoyed this chat, and trust that it provided you with some insight and perspectives into this issue for your use in writing your stories. moderator: Thank you, once again, for attending today's CPNewsLink online chat. moderator: Goodbye, everyone!
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