- Mark Zuckerberg has sort of become cool. Or cooler than he was.
- In 2023, the Meta chief refreshed his public image from weird android to swole and thoughtful.
It was not long ago that Mark Zuckerberg was the most mockable of the Big Tech CEOs.
Besides occasionally coming across as a little android-like in public, his leadership of Facebook has at times looked reactive rather than inventive.
Under Zuckerberg's watch, the social media giant has directly copied ideas from its smaller rivals versus coming up with its own.
It's bought, rather than created, growth through its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.
The firm was marred by the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which spotlighted how much data it hordes.
Facebook's rebrand to Meta in 2021 looked like a wild bet on an unproven technology, the metaverse.
And on the business side, Meta saw its user numbers shrink for the first time that year.
But in 2023, Meta's share price has almost recovered to its all-time high, sending Mark Zuckerberg's net worth up to $84 billion. And he somehow seems… sort of a cool and semi-relatable billionaire?
Here are five key moments from 2023 that show how Zuckerberg turned the tide.
The "Year of Efficiency" played well with investors
Zuckerberg's year didn't start smoothly, given he had to announce large-scale job cuts.
The Meta chief made two rounds of layoffs as digital ad spend, the firm's main source of revenue, collapsed. Meta employees waved goodbye to 21,000 colleagues as a result. Zuckerberg called the moves an important part of his so-called "Year of Efficiency."
Despite the risk posed to worker morale and Zuck's image, it seems to have paid off.
Investors rewarded the Meta chief for prioritizing cost-cutting measures in a tough economic climate, including removing layers of middle management.
It helped Meta's market capitalization rise to $919 billion.
In November, Zuckerberg cashed out around $190 million in Meta shares, putting him back in the top 10 of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
"Hot Zuck summer"
Zuck also got shredded.
Instead of dorky, viral photos involving too much sunscreen, Zuckerberg's Instagram was filled with images of him entering jiu-jitsu-competitions (and winning them), as well as topless and chiseled next to MMA icons such as Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski.
In a break from trying to appeal to the everyman, Zuckerberg also appeared twice on the Lex Fridman podcast — a show that speaks to a certain kind of tech bro. In his first outing, he spoke about his fitness regime; the existential risks posed by AI; and how he thinks about faith. In his second appearance, he appeared as an avatar alongside Fridman in what was billed as the "first interview in the metaverse."
Zuck also began engaging with social media in a slightly more knowing way, posting memes. On Threads, Zuckerberg is often found replying to posts from UFC fighters.
— Mark Zuckerberg (@finkd) July 6, 2023
The Elon feud
Zuckerberg also has another tech CEO to thank for his resurgence: Elon Musk.
As Musk chaotically took over Twitter, transformed it into X, and then laid off hordes of staff, rival Zuckerberg looked like a normal CEO making normal-CEO decisions.
That only became clearer when Musk — who has admitted to a fairly light exercise routine — challenged Zuckerberg to an MMA fight. His beef? The Meta chief was exploiting the chaos at X by launching rival service Threads. "Zuck is a cuck," Musk wrote on X, days after the launch of Threads.
Musk also threatened to show up at Zuckerberg's house to fight him there. The boyish Zuck came off like the adult in the room.
For the Tesla FSD test drive in Palo Alto tonight, I will ask the car to drive to @finkd’s house.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 14, 2023
Will also test latest X livestream video, so you can monitor our adventure in real-time!
If we get lucky and Zuck my actually answers the door, the fight is on!
Going open source on AI
AI has been hot stuff this year thanks to ChatGPT. But instead of trying to find a profiteering strategy, Meta decided to do something different with AI.
It released its (almost) open-source model called Llama 2 in July. The move has been welcomed by developers.
It makes a powerful generative AI tool mostly free. It also brings transparency to a technology that needs it, given issues with AI bias and "hallucinations."
It also fueled more support for Zuckerberg. Amjad Masad, a former Facebook engineer, said it shows "Zuck has balls," during an episode of the No Priors podcast.
Take that, TikTok
Staying relevant has been a challenge for Zuckerberg in the TikTok era.
Younger, Gen Z social media users have flocked to the Chinese-owned app to post content there first over Instagram. They're increasingly going there to track current affairs and career advice too.
TikTok's staying power may not now be as certain as it seemed, however.
Apptopia data suggests the number of daily active users of the Facebook app grew 1.5% in the three months to September, while Instagram's were up by 1.5%. TikTok's daily active users fell around 1% in that time. Instagram has over 2.4 billion monthly active users, per data firm Demand Sage; TikTok has 1.1 billion.
The 2024 challenge
Will Zuckerberg carry the momentum into next year?
Meta will need to step up its metaverse game as Apple prepares to launch its rival offering, the Vision Pro augmented-reality headset.
Zuckerberg is also under scrutiny over reports that Instagram Reels is failing to take down sexualized content of children, according to the Wall Street Journal.
He will need to be a bit more careful with training too. He tore his ACL in November while sparring in preparation for a competitive MMA fight. He needed surgery as a result and has delayed the bout.
The internet is fickle in its likes and dislikes, and 2024 may look quite different for Zuck.