by Tolu Omoyeni

Facebook is celebrating an anniversary and over the years, its founder Mark Zuckerberg has grown in influence and reach. As we co-celebrate Facebook’s anniversary, here are some of the countries Zuckerberg has been before he visits Nigeria:

China: In March this year, Mark Zuckerberg was in China to seek goodwill for Facebook there. As we know, there has been a clampdown on the use of internet in China; Facebook, Twitter and other Western social media sites have been banned by authorities as they believe it is a threat to security in the country. Zuckerberg is keen on taking that large market and he’s been in several talks with the Chinese propaganda chief. Apart from business though, Zuckerberg has love ties with China as his wife, Priscilla Chan is of Chinese descent. While in China, he visited the Great Wall and Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

India:In November 2015, Mark Zuckerberg took a trip to India. Asides business, his visit to India was influenced by late Apple CEO, Steve Jobs who advised Zuckerberg to visit a spiritual temple where he (Jobs) experienced a “life-changing spiritual reflection.” India has over 130 million Facebook users and during the trip, Zuckerberg met with the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. Facebook looks to deploy drones that will provide broadband access to remote areas in India. Zuckerberg also delivered a speech at the internet.org summit set up by Facebook.

Colombia: January 2015, Zuckerberg jetted out to Colombia as part of his global internet-access initiative. His visit to Colombia was aimed at launching the initiative in Latin America for the first time. Zuckerberg met with the Colombian President, Juan Manuel Santos and spoke about how his company had set up a partnership with a local cellular phone provider in the country, Tigo. He also took the opportunity of the one-day visit to hold a town hall meeting with Facebook users outside the US and this was the first of its kind. The meeting was streamed live on Facebook.

Russia: In September 2012, Zuckerberg was in Moscow for business as usual.He met with the Russian Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev and even presented him a T-shirt with an imprint of Medvedev’s Facebook address. Zuckerberg also met with a group of students from Moscow State University but we hear the meeting didn’t go quite well. Upon touchdown in Moscow, Zuckerberg went to the city centre’s McDonalds.

Italy: Barely two weeks after the earthquake that rocked Italy, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla went on a visit to Rome. As it is impossible to go to Italy and not visit the Vatican, Zuckerberg and his family met with Pope Francis and presented him with the very tech-fancy gift of a Facebook drone, Aquila. They also visited the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi with whom they discussed the future of Italy after the earthquake and how tech jobs are driving the country’s economy forward. This is his most recent trip out of the United States.

Tolu

Your pop culture/entertainment go-to. Music head. Wallflower. I do not like to write. On a mission to decipher covfefe.