Have you seen The Social Network?

So I’ve finally gotten around to watching “The Social Network” mostly due to curiosity as to how it depicted Facebook’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.

I know half of the movie was fiction but the plot was based on the story of Zuck, his Harvard dorm mates and several other guys on campus all doing this cool “start-up thingy”.

Having had my own share of failures in conceptualizing and running all sorts of websites since way back in 2001 and dealing with partners that have varying levels of interests, skills and motivations, I can somewhat relate to the story.

There were also some interesting tidbits that I had to go and read up more on just to make sure there’s very close to the facts.

Before Facebook and rival ConnectU, there was MySpace and Friendster in 2004 so the idea wasn’t new. I think what they did was just improve on what’s already there.
Mark Zuckerberg is not the youngest billionaire. He’s only the second youngest. His Facebook co-founder, Dustin Moskovitz, is 8 days younger than Mark and owns 6% of the company which is worth $1.4 billion. But that’s just on paper for now.
The title of the book that inspired the movie, The Accidental Billionaires*, now makes sense — you don’t have to be the first or have the most novel idea to really succeed. Sometimes, it’s all about luck or who you know. I think the well-connected Silicon Valley guy Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster and Plaxo, was instrumental in the direction and success of Facebook.

The movie has painted Mark Zuckerberg in a very bad light — very scheming guy who stole other people’s ideas and betrayed friends. The fact that he paid $65 million to founders of ConnectU to settle his case about ripping off the site and also with his friend and co-founder, Eduardo Saverin, whom he kicked out of the company is very telling.

In any case, it was a pretty interesting movie. Facebook fans should watch it.

Note: *The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal

Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

https://www.yugatech.com

26 Comments

adhip says:

5 years ago

cant ignore the post
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etwanger says:

14 years ago

A very inspiring movie. I never expected that it was that nice after I watched it. For techie guys out there, believe me, it’s really worthy to watch for.
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MurtecWHiz says:

14 years ago

The movie is very inspiring.. but according to Mark, the movie is not 100% true.
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Bon says:

14 years ago

Just a bit of movie trivia for you all. The Winklevoss twins was actually played by one single actor (Armie Hammer) via CGI. ;)

http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/popwrap/behind_the_social_network_twin_towers_tjS8Xq2vMhwp5SYjeSoQTO
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Guy Radaza says:

14 years ago

Btw, after watching this, “Pirates of the Silicon Valley” comes in second as my all time favorite…
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neon says:

14 years ago

What I’d learned.:

“Every Harvard student believes that inventing a JOB is better than finding a JOB. ” ….

Yeah men!
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Miles Garcia says:

14 years ago

I have seen this movie two days ago. Nice and worth watching for. Good movie, good soundtrack. Just like you, I can also relate to the story for the same reasons. Even if youâ€™re not a facebook fan, you should watch is because it simply is a fun and enjoyable movie.
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kobeyashi says:

14 years ago

im gonna be d next mark of the philippines.
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eric says:

14 years ago

I gave a talk titled “How to make the next Mark Zuckerberg in the Philippines” at UP diliman a couple of months ago. Only around 5% of the audience knew who he was even though they all use facebook. Hopefully the movie improves that.
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gpmelendez says:

14 years ago

Good movie, good soundtrack. Just like you, I can also relate to the story for the same reasons. Got 97% on rotten tomatoes. Worth watching. Not exactly for the Filipino masses, though.
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Smarla says:

14 years ago

im planning to watch this next week! :) im excited.
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purple_banana says:

14 years ago

Nice article… Informative.. More more more!
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cloe says:

14 years ago

i downloaded the dvd copy of this a week ago.. i just wana say it’s awesome
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Teknisyan says:

14 years ago

too bad… there are no cinemas here in KSA.. I guess I’ll have to settle for the internet copy!! :(
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Ray says:

14 years ago

I have seen this movie two days ago. Nice and worth watching for.
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Guy says:

14 years ago

Great lessons are learned here. Must see!
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RJCA says:

14 years ago

It was good but in my opinion it’s not worth the hype. Sure, it’s worth the price of admission but it wasn’t GREAT.

I think the film can be summed up in a fer words, Mark Zuckerberg is an asshole. The summation goes pretty well with my previous readings on Mark and his current stand on selling our information.
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Caloy says:

14 years ago

Great movie! I liked the dialogue a lot! Really witty and funny. JT was actually pretty good too. Even if you’re not a facebook fan, you should watch is because it simply is a fun and enjoyable movie.
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Adrian says:

14 years ago

Pirates of silicon valley pa rin.
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EzQX says:

14 years ago

I already watch this,it is so good.
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Ethan says:

14 years ago

Anything with Aaron Sorkin’s name on it almost always turns out great. The West Wing anyone?
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roxj says:

14 years ago

Some may find it a lil too geeky, but for a movie about a website creation, it’s really all worth the hype. Loved the score, esp during the hacking and creation of facesmash part! I’ve also seen Pirates of Silicon Valley and I think TSN’s far better.
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JP says:

14 years ago

No doubt it’s good. Trent Reznor composed the score.
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chibabs says:

14 years ago

Reminded me of Pirates of Silicon Valley.
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Negrita says:

14 years ago

Mark Z is even richer than Steve Jobs… at least on paper
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junnel animo says:

14 years ago

ill be watching this movie now thnx for the review
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