Facebook founder not worried about cash

Facebook's user base is still growing
Facebook's user base is still growing

Despite being under high pressure to justify a huge price tag after the Microsoft stake purchase last year, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has said he cares more about the users than growing the site's bank balance.

At a recent Web 2.0 Summit, Zuckerberg said the company isn't feeling the pressure to justify the £8bn value being slapped on the site's head.

"We are just going to do the best we can in terms of being used by people around the world. On a day-to-day basis, there is no thought to needing to do something to justify a 15-billion-dollar valuation," he told the audience, according to PhysOrg.

"Growth is a really important strategic thing for us. Take France for example. It is really exciting there."

New territories

Despite not posting a profit since its launch in 2004, the site managed to double its users to 125 million last year, and for a site that relies so heavily on advertising revenue the user-base is all important.

Page translations have since been added to the site, which is taking it into new and uncharted territories for a social networking site.

However, Zuckerberg admitted the site was still focused on making cash with ad revenues running into the hundred of millions of dollars, despite reports in the media stating the company is ignoring the all important dollar.

"We want to make sure people around the world can share their information," he said. "Some people have taken that to mean we are not focused on maximising revenue; that is completely wrong."

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Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grew with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.