9 Young Tech Billionaires

Worth: 2.7 billion Source: Facebook Age: 26 Background Info: Dustin Moskovitz, Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard roommate and Facebook’s third employee, dropped out of Harvard and moved to California to work for the social-networking firm full-time. He was the first CTO and then became vice president of engineering. He left a few years later to start Asana, a software company that allows individuals and small companies to better collaborate. Reportedly sold around a 1% stake in Facebook last year but held onto an estimated 5% in the company, whose value has soared to $50 billion, based on the recent Goldman Sachs transaction.

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William Ding

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Worth: 2.2 billion Source: Social Networking Age: 34 Background Info: Founder of Gree, Japan’s largest social networking website, which is overtaking rival billionaire Kenji Kasahara’s Mixi. May be facing off with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg soon; setting up shop in California. On global expansion kick: working with Tencent, the largest Internet service portal in China. Stock is up 35% over the past year; 5-for-1 stock split last fall.

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Worth: 19.8 billion Source: Google Age: 37 Background Info: Google has control of two-thirds of the market, and its influence keeps expanding as adoption of its Android mobile phone operating system soars. The stock is up 18% over the past year. A new age starts for the company in April when co-founder Larry Page takes over as the search giant’s chief executive officer, replacing Eric Schmidt, who will become chairman.

Worth: 19.8 billion Source: Google Age: 37 Background Info: Google cofounder Sergey Brin saw company stock rise 18% over the past year as Google maintained nearly two-thirds of the market for online search. Expanding influence in mobile sector by giving away its Android operating software to phone makers. Brin focuses on raising margins with Instant Search and building new businesses in communications.

Worth: 19.8 billion Source: Google Age: 26 Background Info: Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook played a huge role in the organization of the recent revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya. President Obama claimed Facebook as an example of American innovation in his State of the Union Address. Later, Zuckerberg would sit next to Obama at a dinner with other tech titans like Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, Larry Ellison and John Doerr. Over the last year the 26-year-old’s fortune surged 238% to $13.5 billion as investments from firms like Goldman Sachs boosted Facebook’s valuation to $50 billion.

Worth: 1.6 billion Source: Facebook Age: 31 Background Info: Former Facebook president debuts as a billionaire based on the value the social networking site. His share: just under 3%. At 19, the serial entrepreneur co-founded Napster in 1999, the music sharing service that brought free music to the masses. The disruptive technology helped trigger the record industry’s precipitous decline. Parker joined Facebook in 2004. Recently made more famous after being played by Justin Timberlake in the Oscar-winning film “The Social Network.”

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Worth: 1.6 billion Source: Facebook Age: 28 Background Info: For a brief time he had control of one third of facebook, which then fell to 30% when Zuckerberg’s roommate, Dustin Moskovitz, joined. When the others dropped out of school to relocate to California, Saverin stayed behind. A year later Facebook sued him for allegedly interfering with business and insisting on keeping a 30% stake; Saverin countersued. The parties settled, with Saverin apparently getting a 5% stake and a co-founder bio on Facebook’s site.

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