Mark Zuckerberg Outlines Long-term Goals For The Decade
The Facebook Inc. chief executive officer, said Thursday he will “take a longer term focus” this decade to prioritize projects that will take much longer to come together.
“Rather than having year-to-year challenges, I’ve tried to think about what I hope the world and my life will look in 2030 so I can make sure I’m focusing on those things,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
Among the thoughts he mentioned for the new decade, Zuckerberg expects more institutions to be run by millennials and more policies to be set to address problems younger generations currently face -- from climate change to runaway costs of education, housing and healthcare.
He also hopes that over the next decade, commerce and payments tools will be built so that every small business will have easy access to the same technology that previously only big companies have had.
"If we can make it so anyone can sell products through a storefront on Instagram, message and support their customers through Messenger, or send money home to another country instantly and at low cost through WhatsApp -- that will go a long way towards creating more opportunity around the world. At the end of the day, a strong and stable economy comes from people succeeding broadly, and the best way to do that is to make it so small businesses can effectively become technology companies," he said.
While Zuckerberg expects phones to still be our primary devices through most of this decade, at some point in the 2020s, "we will get breakthrough augmented reality glasses that will redefine our relationship with technology."
"Instead of having devices that take us away from the people around us, the next platform will help us be more present with each other and will help the technology get out of the way. Even though some of the early devices seem clunky, I think these will be the most human and social technology platforms anyone has built yet," Zuckerberg said referring to augmented and virtual reality.
Once again, Facebook CEO called for regulation and rules that should be established through a democratic process in order to "add more legitimacy and trust than rules defined by companies alone."
"There are a number of areas where I believe governments establishing clearer rules would be helpful, including around elections, harmful content, privacy, and data portability. I've called for new regulation in these areas and over the next decade I hope we get clearer rules for the internet," he said.
Online communities could be also governed by independent bodies, such as the Oversight Board Facebook is currently creating. "Soon you'll be able to appeal content decisions you disagree with to an independent board that will have the final decision in whether something is allowed. This decade, I hope to use my position to establish more community governance and more institutions like this. If this is successful, it could be a model for other online communities in the future," Zuckerberg said.