The day I met Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg entered the room like a breeze. In the next 30 seconds, his boyish charm had spread into the air like happiness molecules, disarming everyone present. The straight eye contact and a firm-but-warm hand shake made me want to trust him immediately. But that would have to wait till the end of the interview. 

The day was special. Facebook was hosting its first head of state at its Menlo Park headquarters. And moving away from convention of donning a grey T-shirt, Zuckerberg was dressed in a smart business suit and a blue neck-tie - an unusual feat that wasn't missing anybody's eye. 

Since the interview was happening immediately after the town hall with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it was difficult to skirt the emotional moment that has just passed. "You made the PM cry", I said in a lighter vein. He played on, "No, my mom made him cry". 

There was some small talk about the new campus which I have started referring to as the "Democratic Republic of Facebook" for its beautiful terrace where people can work while sunbathing and the tiny bar set upon a small table in the middle of the world's largest open floor office, for staffers to partake a little something to raise their spirits on a cloudy day. Or, I would give it away to the micro kitchens that can leave little to anyone's gourmet imagination. The on-the-house sweetshop, the saloon, the cycle shop and we can go on and on - I saw employees working out of all of these and more. From the looks of it, it should be the workers' delight! 

Pleasantries exchanged, we finally got to the moot questions. Interestingly, Facebook is a company where perception is split down the middle, especially in India, on its intent and mission. So, the question was a cruel truth to tell at that point: Why do some people perceive Facebook as trying to become the God of all things? They see it as a company that is trying to control everything - from the way people engage and communicate, to morphing into a service provider, a publishing platform, sending satellites into the orbit, manufacturing and flying aircraft - reasons enough for some quarters to feel threatened by the rolling juggernaut?  

If the question had intimidated Zuckerberg, it didn't show. Maybe he is used to fighting this perception battle and by now also has authored his moves to contest it, every time it crops up. 

"It is interesting how people like to see us as this big company. But that is not how we see ourselves. In fact, culturally that is not the mindset we come from. In our perspective, we are very small compared to the impact that we hope to have on the world, in terms of people connect," says Zuckerberg.

"If you ask me, we could never get into the business of doing all that we do if other existing players had cared more. Our vision and purpose has not changed from the time I was at Harvard, solving computer science problem sets with a friend. We would always talk about how someone would pick that idea up and build it for the world to use. We didn't even think it was going to be us. We were just a bunch of kids back then." 

"At that time also, there were these bellwether companies like Google and Microsoft that had hundreds of thousands of employees and all the resources required. We expected them to step forward.  Since that did not happen and because we cared more for this vision, we went ahead and did it." 

According to Zuckerberg, the unconventional spaces and needs which Facebook is finding itself dabbling in, is more due to the existing vacuum in the field. Once again, there are no serious minded players stepping forward to take leadership where the need is. 

"There are a whole lot of other folks out there, whether it is technology companies, organisations, mobile players, who could also be playing a big role and some do. But the only reason we are pushing our limits on this is, we still seem to be care more." 

Facebook has recently pulled all the plugs to drive aggressive innovation across technology, new revenue models and lighter apps that need lesser bandwidth to load on weaker connections to connect the underserviced, including internet.org. Is Facebook trying to become parallel internet with initiatives like internet.org? Does the company have scant respect for net neutrality?

Zuckerberg disagrees: "Not in the least. We want to spread the internet and not become a parallel one - for this we are working on multiple fronts. We are working on new technologies - the unmanned solar powered aircraft that can fly for months and beam down connectivity. Then there are the satellites, laser communication systems to beam down internet at very high bandwidths, new business models like Free Basic rolled out in 20 countries." 

"If you are building for a few hundred million, you can use mainstream technology that can be deployed. But if you are pushing the boundary to connect a billion, you have to get to the fringes to get to the last man in the village. That needs a different approach." 

Is the Indian experience frustrating his intent? There is a firm answer on that.

"India will have to get the debate right. What we are doing will have to be seen as a very wide commitment to do all other things necessary to give that push to get internet to the next billion in India." 

Interestingly, the favourite story for the Facebook leadership is that of Srinivasa Ramanujan - the man who re-wrote the mathematics landscape after he got access to just one math book at the age of eleven. The common argument is that if free services on the net can give the deprived, access to basic knowledge, the world can have many more Ramanujan from India - an argument difficult to refute. 

On the question of the net neutrality debate, Zuckerberg would like to distance internet.org from the confusion as he sees them as two different and equally important issues.

"We believe in net neutrality very strongly. If someone wants to get access to some service but operator wants to charge more money, that is unfair. But if a free service is giving access to a child to do his homework, why would someone have a problem with that?" 

"Look at it this way. Nobody with a sane mind would support differential pricing. It is not possible to sell the same apple, saying men will have to pay 3 dollars and women pay only one. It is clear why that is not acceptable. But, if you want to take an apple and give it to a food bank for free, why would someone see a wrong in that?" 

Zuckerberg finally seems to have seen the merit of not just doing right but also to "be seen as doing right" - so we will hear more from Facebook on why they do what they do. And there will always be two sides sitting in judgement over the intent. But that does not seem to dampen the spirit of the 30-something still young Turk who seems to have his vision wrapped around his finger. 

All strength to the good intent on whichever side it rests.