Forbes today released their annual 400 richest Americans list — no surprise, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is on it at number 158. His net worth is $2 billion, one-fifth of Facebook’s $10 billion valuation.
At 25, Zuckerberg is by far the youngest member of the Forbes 400 list. The next youngest person on the list is hedge fund operator John Arnold, who is 35. Last year, Zuckerberg debuted on the list at #321. His net worth at the time was $1.5 billion.
Zuckerberg started Facebook in his Harvard dorm room in 2004, and now Facebook is the third largest site on the internet. In May, Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies invested $200 million into Facebook, setting its $10 billion valuation.
Earlier this month, Facebook announced that they now have 300 million users and cash flow positive for the first time last quarter.
Without a profit, someone is a billionaire to say the least. A joke. Forbes list is their best way of selling some magazines.
Your right cause you know facebook lets youo see all their books… and with their piss poor traffic they will never make lots of money… all those people who invest in facebook are silly…. facebook is a joke of a website… it will go the way of the dodo bird.. everyone who loves it is an idiot…. when will people realize that friendster is where it is at…
I sorta agree.. it will follow geocities, AOL, MySpace; it’s all cyclical.
It is impressive though that everyone and their mom, dad, aunt, uncle, etc are on facebook. Though this can be attributed to it being private but more so how the Internet/broadband is a fabric of all age groups’ lives, more so today then in MySpace’s heyday.
I disagree… the kids may be fickle, but there are too many older folks using it as a replacement for classmates.com. They’re not going anywhere for a while.
Well done, my apprentice.
+15!
Don’t make me destroy you.
Viva George Lucas.
Yeah he’s just behind me with $6 billion. Nice try Mark. There’s always next year.
thats real good for him.. I was always slightly dissapointed to see reports that placed his net worth at $700M. $2 Billion seems more just.
I would put it more at around $1 billion ~ with the $6.5 billion valuation. $10 billion seems a little inflated…
Thumbs up! Just a few things that occured to me right now;
- Bill G is the richest man.
- Zuck is the richest kid (on paper)
- Bill dropped out of Harvard
- Zuck dropped out of Harvard
- Both started their company at the same age
- Bill built made his fortune on the desktop OS
- Zuck is making his fortune on an internet OS
My question is, was Bill still the CEO when Microsoft made the investment? he probably saw himself! haha
I read somewhere that Bill admitted he thought the internet was a fad.
haha, perhaps he did. But not in the order on your list.
What is an Internet OS?
I was fortunate to be on an exclusive Forbes list that nobody can accomplish anymore – a conversation with Malcom Forbes on his yacht The Highlander #thecapitalisttool
haha… im on that list too buddy.
Facebook is not worth $10 billion.
Don’t invest in them when they go public…;)
I’ll invest, just in the other direction.
Okay, I certainly won’t. LOL, investors are still wary from the first bubble when all those companies had were eyeballs. Facebook might be eeking out a small amount of cash, but it’s certainly not enough to justify the amount of money that has been invested.
Facebook will be great for shorting.
Facebooks worth is theoretical…facebook is worth as much as someone is going to pay for it and unless facebook gets bought or Zuckerberg sells his stock, hes not a damn billionair.
same goes for Arnold btw, hes managing 3billion $ in his hedge fund, thats not what he has in his pockets.
You mean Centaurus John Arnold? He is much more likely to actually have the money in his pocket than Zuckerberg. Difference between cash-based businesses and equity-based businesses.
Seems like another Bill Gates in the making. They do look alike to certain extent, except Zuck does’nt wear glasses!
Wow, amazing, at 25!
I didn’t think facebook was worth $10 billion, besides how do you give a true valuation of a company when its only just started making a profit?
It just blows my mind to think that someone is worth that much just a few years out of college and all of that wealth entirely self created. I mean becoming a self made millionaire at that age would be a huge achievement but a billionaire? Incredible
On paper != billionaire
VC != Self Made
Might as well say Mark is worth $100 Billion theoretical dollars.
i’d say his worth is more around what he has cashed in from investments.
Huh?
I agree with the majority of commenters.
Zuckerberg making the Forbes 400 list is ridiculous. His equity is non-liquid and pure speculation.
Well I own 20% of my company. Theoretically we are worth about ten million dollars. That means my net worth is 2 million dollars???
Exactly. I could happily give 10% of my company to anyone who would invest $10 million into a marketing campaign that would create an inflated perception of value.
To many haters here.
Give him some credit. He has a website that has 300M users around the world with a recognizable Facebook brand. And as a token is driving $500M in revenues only six years later.
To me that smells like some measurable success. Not sure he had his publicist call the magazine asking to be put the rich list.
$500M in revenue is not a measure of glory in itself since it took $716M in funding to build that playing field. With enough money to burn you can build anything. Money is the answer to everything.
I started my company with $8k and two credit cards. We’re almost two years in and within 5% of cash flow positive. This year sales were up 600% and our busy season hasn’t started yet.
We were able to prove that the system works and now we have the issue of building capital to grow. Money in the bank is our only limitation between today and $500M in sales.
Couldnt agree more with you.
I thought it was proven he borrowed the idea from the Winkelvoss brothers. The comparison to Gates often frustrates me.
he is Tech man.
Thank for this post
Why so much hate for young Zuck? Nobody knows for sure how much he is worth right now but I am sure we all can agree that he is worth $1B+. I am sensing that most people are upset that he was featured on this list. The dude owns 20% of a company that was valued at $10B. So why shouldn’t he be on the list? If you don’t like Facebook or believe he stole the idea of Facebook, its a moot point right now. Zuck is controlling one of the biggest/hottest internet properties in the world.
I would like to offer a different perspective.
While $10B seems an excessive valuation, I still find it a reasonable figure. There’s no denying FB is worth several billions, and I sincerely respect that.
But to think, after several mega-rounds, any ONE founder, talented and worthy as he might be, will have 20% (!!!) of his company?
that’s ridiculous or at the very least almost unprecedented. What about Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, Chris Hughes? did they work for free?
if the combined equity of all founders reaches 20% it still would have been a good deal for venture of that size. More than that is suspicious to say the least.
So many haters..I dont use FB that much but you got to them some credits !!
Whether you like it or not , they’ll will go for an IPO and MZ will make money .
Dont really matter if He reaches the Billion mark or not , He’s going to have deep pockets !!
Does MZ own 20% or 30% or FB? I wonder the calculation is based on the $10 billion or the $6.5 billion valuation. Since the $10 billion is only for preferred stock, it seems the $6.5 billion figure should be used. To get to $2 billion in net worth, it seems that MZ would have to own around 30% of FB.
Sure, we have to give this guy some credit, but I don’t buy into this one bit.
Facebook is the number one social network in the world! But the 300 million user speculation is wrong, because some users have more than one account — just saying!
I don’t believe this billionaire crap at all, because this is all based on speculation.
FACEBOOK IS A GREAT SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE, BUT NOT A COMPANY.
So how much do the people on the forbes list actually have that is not stock ; I doubt Zuckerberg has even 100 million in cash
100m in what currency? Rupees?
He is going to keep climbing up the list.