Home › Books › Facebook: The Inside Story
Facebook: The Inside Story
by
2/99
Critics' Rating Index
37/99
Readers' Rating Index
94/99
Scholars' Citation Index
89/99
Volume of Reviews
67/99
Volume of Reader Ratings
Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.
About This Book
He has had unprecedented access to Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg for three years. And now renowned tech writer Steven Levy delivers the definitive history of one of America's most powerful and controversial companies: Facebook. In his sophomore year of college, Mark Zuckerberg created a simple website to serve as a campus social network. The site caught on like wildfire, and soon students nationwide were on Facebook. Today, Facebook is nearly unrecognizable from Zuckerberg's first, modest iteration. It has grown into a tech giant, the largest social media platform and one of the most gargantuan companies in the world, with a valuation of more than $576 billion and almost 3 billion users, including those on its fully owned subsidiaries, Instagram and WhatsApp. There is no denying the power and omnipresence of Facebook in American daily life. And in light of recent controversies surrounding election-influencing "fake news" accounts, the handling of its users' personal data, and growing discontent with the actions of its founder and CEO, never has the company been more central to the national conversation. Based on hundreds of interviews inside and outside the company, Levy's sweeping narrative digs deep into the whole story of the company that has changed the world and reaped the consequences.
Reviews
"From Mark Zuckerberg's Harvard dorm room in 2004 to Levy's July 2019 interview with him, Levy takes the reader into a detailed history of the world's biggest social networking company."
"Facebook-phobes will enjoy Levy's rich account of the company's creepy doings, but his take on Facebook's social impact smacks more of anxiety than thoughtful analysis."
"Of considerable interest to followers of technological trends, futurists, and investors."
"Levy is the dean of tech writers; Facebook's brass gave him the run of the C-suite."
"Facebook's founder remains a cipher in a book that in many ways doubles as his biography."
"Though the author's access to these two executives is touted as the book's selling point, Levy relates events in a personable but detached tone that steers clear of hagiography, critique, or even the inside scoop ..."
"Levy lets the company get away with a general sense of corporate failure by characterizing it as 'what Facebook did not do,' rather than showing which individuals dropped the ball ..."
"does not delve deeply into the company's data-mining practices...Nor does the book examine the company's outsize role in the surveillance economy ..."
"the most pervasive impression is of a merciless, Roman emperor-loving Zuckerberg (we discover he is a fan of autocrat Augustus), who is forever buying up or copying competitors and giving to the developers that build on Facebook's platform with one hand and taking away with another, whenever it suits Facebook's business interests ..."
Preview
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!