Explosive Growth Predicted for Facebook Founder’s Ego
by John Paczkowski
Posted on August 31, 2007 at 4:58 AM PT
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is likely a bit smugger than usual today thanks to the social-networking site’s latest achievement. Global banking conglomerate HSBC yesterday reversed its decision to take away departing students’ interest-free overdrafts following a protest on Facebook. The bank had planned to charge new graduates an interest rate of 9.9%, but thought better of it after the Facebook group “Stop the Great HSBC Graduate Rip-Off” began gaining critical mass.
“Like any service-orientated business, we are not too big to listen to the needs of our customers,” HSBC said in a statement. “Following the feedback from our graduate account holders, we have taken the decision to freeze interest-charging on 2007 graduates’ overdrafts up to £1,500 and refund any interest charged in August.”
An impressive achievement for armchair organizing, eh? And a hell of a lot easier than attending a student march.
“There can be no doubt that using Facebook made the world of difference to our campaign,” said National Union of Students Vice President Wes Streeting. “By setting up a group on a site that is incredibly popular with students, it enabled us to contact our members during the summer vacation far more easily than would otherwise have been possible. It also meant that we could involve our former members–the graduates who were going to be most affected by this policy.”
