Mark Zuckerberg's Townhall Q&A at IIT Delhi

Mark Zuckerberg signs off by saying he will visit India again soon

"We are all humans, no one is perfect," says Mark Zuckerberg

Q: What was a decision that you took in the early days of Facebook that you regretted later?

Mark's answer:
I made all kinds of mistakes. Anything you can think of, I have made all the mistakes
It was all trial and error. You cannot be afraid of making mistakes
What you should focus on is not which mistake to avoid
But you should focus on what drives you
Focus not on the mistakes but as much good as you can

Zuckerberg shares challenges he faced while building Facebook:

Throughout building Facebook, there were lots of challenges and I felt felt like giving up
In the media there is a bias...the bias is that I built Facebook and Steve Jobs built Apple.
But there are thousands of people involved...
A study has shown that companies that get started with more cofounders are likely to be more successful
No one can overcome all of the challenges by themselves
My coworkers keep me going

Mark Zuckerberg's advice for budding entrepreneurs and start-up companies

• I have seen some people who are trying to start a company without figuring out what they want to do
• All great companies started with people who cared about something
• If you start working on something that you care for
• And turn it into a company when it takes off, then it'll be more likely to do well
• None of the people who built big companies thought that they would be as big as they ended up being
• So my advice is focus on what you care about and not the decision to start a company

A word of advice for young students from Mark Zuckerberg:

The skills you learn in college are what will help you the most. Just keep doing what you want to and do not let people get in the way

Marks shares the journey of developing Facebook:

• It wasn't long ago that I was sitting in the audience and listening to Bill Gates at Harvard
• There was not one moment when I had a revelation that Facebook would be this big
• I built the first version of Facebook because I wanted to connect to people in my school
• Back then it didn't even occur to me that one day the entire world would be using it
• We just kept doing the next thing and people kept saying this is just a fad

Visiting the Taj Mahal, and no conference room, was a welcome change, he quipped.

Also shared how a girl fell into a bush while trying to take a photo of him when he was at the Taj Mahal

Talking about his visit to the Taj Mahal, he said it is "even more awesome than the pictures."

"Unlike most monuments in the world which celebrate military victories, the Taj Mahal is unique because it is a monument to love."

Q: Internet.Org is a great initiative but there have been many questions about net neutrality. Does Internet.org support net neutrality fully?



Mark's answer:

• Yeah, absolutely. A debate is there because countries are right now figuring out what net neutrality needs to be.
• There is a perception and some reports in media that we are giving access to some platforms and preventing others. But it couldn't be farther from the truth
• We lobby for it (net neutrality) across the world but at the same time, we continue to push for access
• Free basics programme under the Internet.org initiative aims to connect the next billion people and we cannot miss India in that vision as it is one of the largest democracies in the world
• Free basics does not intend to harm anyone -- neither the consumers nor the operators. Any developer who can stream low-data consuming content can be a part of the platform
• Some proponents of net neutrality say there should be no free access. But I say if a student who doesn't have access to internet is given free access to do her homework, who is getting hurt there?
• There needs to be a differentiation between filtering and allowing free access to basics
• I'll leave you a thought, that people who are pushing with the petitions already have access to the internet
• We have a moral responsibility to look out for people who do not have the Internet... and make sure the rules don't get twisted to hurt people who don't have a voice," Zuckerberg said, adding that the programme had brought a million Indians online.

A student asks Mark if he is gifted supernatural powers from aliens, what would he wish for?

His response:
With technology you can build super powers
What we are working with Oculus is that we are allowing people to teleport
People can be in completely different place but teleport and come together for an experience
But then it starts getting awesome
We can simulate gravity, you can play ping pong with a friend in space
Soon, you'll be able to put on a headset and go anywhere in the world and that'll be pretty good

Mark Zuckerberg says he is very keen to explore how Facebook can help poor and uneducated people

Zuckerberg was next asked about Facebook investing in artificial intelligence - "What are the future products we can expect?," a student asked

He responded that Facebook was working on a project where AI can describe photos to blind people

He also said it could help in looking for stranded people at the time of a crisis like a natural calamity

He was the asked how he was planning to incorporate the Oculus Rift technology to social media

While answering this Q, he talked of what he thinks will be the future of sharing videos on social media

• 15 years ago, people used texts to share their experiences. Now it is videos that are animated and animated and richer
• But videos are still not end of line. They are still small screen and 2d
• But people now want a richer medium where you can feel that you are right there in the scene
• That is what virtual reality and augmented reality can do
• It will evolve static 2D media into a 3D experience

Zuckerberg then shared that he and his wife were expecting a daughter (the crowd cheered, he thanked them)

• My wife and I are expecting a daughter.
• Traditionally people take photos of their baby taking first steps and send it to their families
• I really hope, with virtual and augmented reality, I will be able to capture that experience for my parents and friends and make them feel as if they are there with us
• That I think is going to be magical

Zuckerberg was next asked the most voted question - "How can we stop getting invitations on Candy Crush?"


He smiled and responded:

• This is why such townhalls are so useful
• This was the top voted questions on our thread
• I told my developers can we have a solution to this problem by the time I do my Q and A?
• So we are doing it now

Zuckerberg enlists 3 reasons why people don't have access to Internet  - 1) Availability 2) Affordability 3) (he says this is the Biggest reason) - Awareness

He then shared Facebook's plan to break these barriers

• Investing in new ways to bring connectivity
• Focusing on apps that use use less data
• Including education, health, job, Wikipedia, news in Internet.org

Q2 for Mark Zuckerberg: Although we are 130mn users, how do you connect people who are not on Facebook or don't have internet access?

His reply: The first thing I say is that we can look at the efforts we have had with Internet.org. It is live in 24 countries in the world and growing. There are 15mn people in the world who have access to Internet because of the efforts of Internet.org. That's a pretty good impact

Attacks critics of Internet.org:
I have seen some cynical reporting saying it isn't working as good
But if that isn't good, I'd like to know what you think is

First Q for Zuckerberg from a student named Ankit: Why are you showing so much interest in India? Answer honestly

Zuckerberg's reply: Our mission at Facebook is to connect everyone in the world.
India is the largest democracy
You cannot connect the world without connecting India
India also has so many users on Facebook and WhatsApp which is also part of our community
So they are part of the people we want to connect
India still has so many people without Internet access
Internet can provide, education, health information and access to job listings
So the research has shown that for every 10 people who get access to the Internet, one new job is created and one person is lifted out of poverty
India has tremendous potential for that
Connecting people in India is one of the most important things we can do for the world
It is also about the ideas that people, students, entrepreneurs have here today that the world doesn't have access to
So people are robbed of opportunities. That's why I care so deeply about it

IIT Delhi is all set for a date with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Around noon today, he will host a townhall meeting where around 900 students will get a chance to interact with him in a question and answer session.