Facebook's Rise: Mark Zuckerberg's 5 Smartest Moves

Time's "Person of the Year" is Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The 26 year-old Harvard dropout has transformed Facebook from a small network of Harvard students into the largest online network the world has ever seen.

Facebook's short history may not have been as dramatic as portrayed in the 2010 blockbuster The Social Network, but Zuckerberg's brainchild has had its fair share of ups and downs. Like any company, there have been good calls and bad calls, soaring successes and dismal fails.

We're looking back at the smartest decisions Facebook ever made, decisions that turned the spunky startup into a global behemoth and a household name. Take a look through our slideshow of Facebook's most strategic moves, and vote for the one you think improved the company most. As always, share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Making Us Use Our Real Identities

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One of the major factors that distinguished Facebook from competing social networks and helped it become the online powerhouse it is today was a crucial decision made early on to require users to create profiles using their actual identity and real names. Zuckerberg said earlier this year, "The Web is at a really important turning point right now. Up until recently, the default on the Web has been that most things aren't social and most things don't use your real identity. We're building towards a Web where the default is social. Every application and product will be designed from the ground up to use real identity and friends."

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One of the major factors that distinguished Facebook from competing social networks and helped it become the online powerhouse it is today was a crucial decision made early on to require users to create profiles using their actual identity and real names. Zuckerberg said earlier this year, "The Web is at a really important turning point right now. Up until recently, the default on the Web has been that most things aren't social and most things don't use your real identity. We're building towards a Web where the default is social. Every application and product will be designed from the ground up to use real identity and friends."

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[oldetripreal]

09:26 AM on 12/30/2010

Julian Assange vs Mark Zuckerberg : Who is the real Man of the Year?

http://olderime.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/julian-assange-vs-mark-zuckerberg-who-is-the-real-man-of-the-year/

[huffpostreader10000]

11:10 PM on 12/29/2010

#5 really?
Did you just put it up there because recently there was an article lamenting the absence of women CEOs in companies the likes of Facebook, Twitter, etc?
Jeez.

[Patricia Brizzio]

12:25 PM on 12/28/2010

While I am a Facebook junky, I'd love to see this same list, but for "Dumbest Moves." I'll start: (a) over-saturating the functionality (Facebook was more fun when it wasn't as cluttered), (b) Allowing the likes of Twitter and/or Foursquare to carve away valuable real-estate from Facebook's market, (c) Purchasing Drop.io... Anyone have anything to add to this list?

[Shukr]

12:27 AM on 12/16/2010

"The 26 year-old Harvard dropout"

Wow! How rare is it to read "Harvard" and "dropout" in the dame sentence?!

[Shukr]

12:27 AM on 12/16/2010

Same*

[TricksR4Kids]

10:16 PM on 12/15/2010

I grew up in the 80's. Never was a populist. Be a punk, wear black eyeliner, and torn pantyhose. So 20th century, uncreative, and frankly a window display at Forever 21. We used our imagination then not "copied" our look. Sarah Palin uses Facebook. That alone would make any of us originals from the 80's not even want to get close. The US Govt. uses Facebook. So does your 10 year old bosses daughter. So umm., not cool or even close. No matter what.

[TricksR4Kids]

10:11 PM on 12/15/2010

He should be the "Person of the Year." Who else has been able to put up a network that has more private information, including photographs on people than any Israeli mossad could ever dream of?

[missingnc]

10:20 PM on 12/15/2010

I bet Facebook has more dirt on your than the U.S. government. I dare you...think back to what you've done, comments you've made, things that you'd say in private that you'd never want published.

Just wait...in case you can't remember, I'm sure you'll be reminded one day in the future.

[Last chance]

11:06 PM on 12/15/2010

I say all kinds of convoluted s.hyte....deliberately....(drives `em cra.zy.)

[Last chance]

10:59 PM on 12/15/2010

what makes you think that he isn`t mossad ?

[yathink]

09:45 PM on 12/15/2010

My high school friends? Either I still know them or I don't care. My current friends? We get together for lunch and I don't reveal every detail of my life on the web. Mark Zuckerberg? The world's biggest narcissist. Time Magazine? Haven't read it in 20 years.

[Diggsdad]

09:45 PM on 12/15/2010

He has soulless eyes.

[missingnc]

10:21 PM on 12/15/2010

I believe his soul has already been sold.

[GovernmentBubble]

09:37 PM on 12/15/2010

Julian Assange circlejerk aside, this is actually a very good analysis of the things Zuckerberg did right.

[missingnc]

10:22 PM on 12/15/2010

Right for HIM. Wrong for YOU. Just wait and see.

[Last chance]

11:00 PM on 12/15/2010

Fusion centers...data mining.

[rotorhead1871]

09:15 PM on 12/15/2010

you need better security.....

[missingnc]

10:23 PM on 12/15/2010

Trust me, you're information is securely in their hands. It just so happens that it may be securely in the hands of other scrupulous and not so scrupulous parties also.

[rcmfla]

09:12 PM on 12/15/2010

Here's my take on Facebook. Facebook is everything Classmates.com could have been, but the site was unfunctional until you paid their premium. Personally, I'm not going to pay a dime to stay in touch with classmates and that was where they failed. Had they had an open community, this would be the company everyone talked about.

[Brokenduck]

09:03 PM on 12/15/2010

You all didn't think they would give this "honor" to Julian Assange did you? They probably thought about it a little, then [poof!], they received the memo from 1600 Penn Ave.

Marvelous.

[TricksR4Kids]

10:12 PM on 12/15/2010

Facebook is a money maker for Time. Advertisers. Wikileaks not so much. Time most like received a "donation." Wikileaks is not "corporate" Time the epitome of corporate.

[1donewrong]

08:59 PM on 12/15/2010

Time has always been ahead of its time and i look forward to these annual picks especially after they name hit1er

[Minion]

08:15 PM on 12/15/2010

For the moment, until the next " thing" comes along.

[SaddleBum]

07:36 PM on 12/15/2010

hitler, stalin, martin luther king and

mark zuckerberg?

what a joke

[Last chance]

11:00 PM on 12/15/2010

bernanke last year....yuk.