It's a lot more than right place, right time, strong initial user base - myspace had these as well. It was the understanding and (ab)use of that position to in

It's a lot more than right place, right time, strong initial user base - myspace had these as well. It was the understanding and (ab)use of that position to increase the user base, and to make it into a marketing machine like no other. Purchase of Onavo, that let him spy on users better and realize he needs to buy Instagram and Whatsapp, but not Skype, to maintain monopoly. Quite a few of other data deals, most considered shady by anyone aware of them (though afaik all legal). Mark Zuckerberg was in the right place, at the right time, and extremely astute and intelligent (if ethically challenged, IMO) -- much like Bill Gates 40 years ago. There were possibly thousands of people in the right place and the right time in the 1980s, but only one Bill Gates and only one Steve Jobs. Similarly, there were thousands of people in the right place and the right time in 2004, but only one Mark Zuckerberg. Also, I suspect in 50-100 years when things are declassified, we'll find that he also had help from 3 letter agencies in exchange for the data trove he was able to collect.