One of the most influential figures in the world IT-industry, Mark Zuckerberg, arrived in Moscow on September 30. This news captured the minds of Russians, especially of Russian students, for two days. The purpose of Zuckerberg’s arrival was the meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. But Russian experts (for instance, the founder of IBS Group, Anatoly Karachinsky) say that “Zuckerberg visited Russia on a world tour of programming contests, World Hack, to identify and attract new talent.”

Exploring Moscow

The founder and CEO of Facebook managed to visit plenty of places on his first day in Moscow. Brand-new photographs of him visiting different places were uploaded to his Facebook page. Firstly, Mark decided to go sightseeing – he took a walk through the Red Square with Ekaterina Skorobogatova, a Facebook Development Manager. She held an excursion for Zuckerberg. Later on Zuckerberg went to try “Russian” McDonald’s, which is near to the Red Square. Surrounded by his bodyguards, other foreigners and Russian people, Mark looked very fresh and cheerful.

“It was interesting for Mark to see everything, he liked the Red Square very much. He smiled all the time,” the people who accompanied him said.

Attending Important Meetings

On October 1, Mark Zuckerberg had a meeting with Medvedev. It was a big surprise for followers who got used to seeing Mark wearing his favorite outfit to see that he ditched his trademark hoodie and jeans for a suit and tie for his meeting. The main themes of their discussion were the Russian IT-business and innovation projects on the “Skolkovo” base, IT-communications, which are mutually beneficial, and copyright law in the Internet. They have also discussed the possibility to open a Facebook Office in Russia. This question was kept in Mark’s mind, but it was not the main point of Facebook strategy. At the end of the meeting Dmitry Medvedev was given a T-shirt with his Facebook link on it as a present.

The same day, Zuckerberg attended a meeting with winners of the “Facebook World Hack” contest at the Digital October center. Winners are supposed to get an invitation to join the Facebook Team. Programmers can continue their career paths at the Facebook headquarter in California.

Sharing the Experience

The following day, Zuckerberg came to Moscow State University in order to hold a speech for the students. When he came out to the scene, he was greeted with applause. The speech was arranged as an interview with Mikhail Lyalin, the creator of the most popular game, “Cut The Rope,” on ITunes and Play Market.

Mark started his 40-minute speech with these words: “When I started using the Internet, I was very shocked knowing that the previous generation had no opportunity to use it. They could not find any information about people or things. While creating and establishing Facebook, I had one main goal. I wanted to create something incredible, something which will help people to communicate and to keep in touch with their friends.”

Mark has also faced the question about giving up Harvard. When he got the idea to create Facebook, he took half of the year to work and develop the idea. “If Harvard gave me only 2 options – to leave or not to leave- by all means, I would stay. But is not it great that you have an idea and you can work on it?” he said. He stressed the point that he wanted to give the world something which may be considered very important; that is why his company was not sold at its early stages, though the sale of it could bring a lot of money.

Speaking of competitors, Mark Zuckerberg noticed that users end up choosing a more comfortable social network. It means that users choose Facebook because the Facebook Team always improves and makes their site more and more comfortable for its users. The Team always creates and develops new applications. Zuckerberg noticed that Facebook reached an audience of almost a billion people, and it is an advantage if we compare the site to its competitors.

After the speech, the Facebook’s CEO answered some students’ questions. Surprisingly, he could not give a name of his favorite book, though he emphasized the fact that he reads a lot.

At the end of the meeting, the MSU Rector, Viktor Sadovnichy, presented Zuckerberg with a souvenir with the main building of the University on it. In return, Mark Zuckerberg presented the Rector a hoodie with the logo of the social network.

Unfortunately, Zuckerberg could answer only 3 questions. His assistant stepped in to say that Mark has to go to the airport. Mark promised to come back to continue the discussion with students and disappeared.  All fans can do is hope for him to come back very soon.

Image Courtesy of   jdlasica

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About the author

Adelya Valeeva
My name is Adelya and I'm from Russia. I love meeting new and interesting, bright people. You can always contact me via Twitter: @Just__Elle