It's hard to say what the modern world will look like if the tech giants decided to pursue something else. What would most computer systems look like if Bill Gates decided to pursue painting instead? Would Apple even exist if Jobs or Wozniak haven't met?
According to interestingengineering.com, Mark Zuckerberg could've ended up being a McDonald's franchise owner if he chose to. The Facebook founder's father offered him a choice, running a franchise or college, as mentioned by his sister, Randi. Obviously, he chose college.
Despite choosing to pursue higher education, he dropped out of college in 2005. He was taking up computer science, which explains how he ended up creating the app. Mark Zuckerberg made all the right decisions, as his platform is now worth $430 billion.
How Would Social Media Look Like Without Facebook?
Time.com believes that without Facebook, Friendster would've had the chance to rise up to the hype that Facebook now has. After all, Friendster creator, Jonathan Abrams, suggested that they should launch a "Friendster College" initiative at the site's peak. It was basically how Facebook started out.
Twitter could've also been bigger, since people will turn to the site for written updates about their life as opposed to updating their status on Facebook.
As for posting pictures or live videos, it is unclear but Snapchat or Instagram would've taken the helm. Instagram as of right now, has been a competitor in photo and video content. Without Facebook, Instagram would've thrived and Snapchat would've had bigger success.
Instagram would also more or less double the number of live videos they stream, but since TikTok has introduced live videos as well, they could compete with live video users. The same goes with Instagram reels and TikTok videos as well, though it's obvious that TikTok would win that.
TikTok is fairly independent of its success from Facebook, so it would've catapulted to fame anyway. It would probably gain just a little bit of engagement since Facebook reels wouldn't exist.
Reddit would've been the platform for Facebook pages with the purpose of sharing content within a specific premise. Reddit already has that kind of system, the subreddits. People can join communities that serve the same purpose as a Facebook page.
Mark Zuckerberg as a Franchise Owner
No one can say what Zuckerberg's life would've been like if he chose a different path. However, we can guess using known variables. For example, A food and beverage franchise can profit up to $90,388 a year, sometimes even more depending on its location.
Still, 90 grand a year is a far cry from $23.4 million, which is how much he earned through other forms of compensation in 2019. That's approximately 258 times bigger than what he would've gotten from a McDonald's franchise.
As the creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg's net worth is an astounding $50.7 billion. With his business-savvy mind, who knows if he could've reached that with a different business idea?
