Zuckerberg to investors: If you only care about money, don't buy Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg has a clear message to Facebook investors: If you don't like the idea of initiatives like Internet.org, then get out of the stock.

That was the takeaway from an impassioned response Mark Zuckerberg gave during Facebook's earnings call Wednesday after an analyst questioned why investors should care about Internet.org, Facebook's ongoing effort to make the Internet accessible in developing markets around the world.

"It matters to the kinds of investors we want to have," said Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder and CEO, in a not-so-subtle dig at the question and any investors who may agree with its sentiment. "Part of the subtext of your question is that, yeah, if we are only focused on making money, we might put all of our energy into increasing ads to people in the U.S. and the other most developed countries."

Zuckerberg's suggestion is that Internet.org, which first launched in 2013, is not primarily about boosting the company's bottom line, though he said it may indeed prove to be a "good business opportunity" when the economies and ad markets in these developing markets mature.

"But this is why we’re here," he stated firmly. "We are here because our mission is to connect the world. I just think it's really important that investors know that."

Zuckerberg has at times fought back against the idea that Facebook is or should only be about making money. “If what I cared about was making more money, I’d take the people who are working on Internet.org … and have them go work on our ads product,” he said in a Q&A with Facebook users earlier this month.

The CEO also laid out his priorities in a letter to potential investors in the lead to Facebook’s IPO in 2012: “Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected. We think it’s important that everyone who invests in Facebook understands what this mission means to us.”

The exchange on Wednesday came during an otherwise uneventful earnings call following a successful quarter for the social network. Facebook posted earnings of $0.54 per share on revenue of $3.85 billion, beating Wall Street estimates.

Thursday: Here is a full transcript of the slightly heated exchange between the analyst, Carlos Kirjner, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg from last night's earnings call, courtesy of TheStreet (with bolding for emphasis.)

Carlos Kirjner (Analyst - Sanford C. Bernstein and Company): I have two quick questions.

First, when you say that time spent increased 10% year on year, is this roughly uniform across your geographic regions?

And, secondly, Mark, I think during your remarks in every earnings call, you talk to your investors for a considerable amount of time about Facebook's efforts to connect the world, and specifically about Internet.org which suggest you think this is important to investors. Can you clarify why you think this matters to investors?

And, importantly, why you think Facebook can make a significant difference at scale, given that your [ann over pupil] user in emerging markets is about $5, and to connect any user who has no device or coverage may be at risk in terms of dollars? Thank you.

Mark Zuckerberg: It matters to the kind of investors that we want to have, because we are really a mission-focused company. We wake up every day and make decisions because we want to help connect the world. That's what we're doing here.

Part of the subtext of your question is that, yes, if we were only focused on making money, we might put all of our energy on just increasing ads to people in the US and the other most developed countries. But that's not the only thing that we care about here.

I do think that over the long term, that focusing on helping connect everyone will be a good business opportunity for us, as well. We may not be able to tell you exactly how many years that's going to happen in. But as these countries get more connected, the economies grow, the ad markets grow, and if Facebook and the other services in our community, or the number one, and number two, three, four, five services that people are using, then over time we will be compensated for some of the value that we've provided.

This is why we're here. We're here because our mission is to connect the world. I just think it's really important that investors know that.

Posted by : Gizmeon