大名鼎鼎的Facebook在美国时间的2月1日正式启动IPO了，下面是其招股说明书中的来自马克·扎克伯格的公开信，感觉挺不错的，将其中英文都摘录在博客中吧。中文翻译来自新浪科技，英文版来自美国证券及交易委员会。
LETTER FROM MARK ZUCKERBERG
Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected.
We think it’s important that everyone who invests in Facebook understands what this mission means to us, how we make decisions and why we do the things we do. I will try to outline our approach in this letter.
At Facebook, we’re inspired by technologies that have revolutionized how people spread and consume information. We often talk about inventions like the printing press and the television — by simply making communication more efficient, they led to a complete transformation of many important parts of society. They gave more people a voice. They encouraged progress. They changed the way society was organized. They brought us closer together.
Today, our society has reached another tipping point. We live at a moment when the majority of people in the world have access to the internet or mobile phones — the raw tools necessary to start sharing what they’re thinking, feeling and doing with whomever they want. Facebook aspires to build the services that give people the power to share and help them once again transform many of our core institutions and industries.
There is a huge need and a huge opportunity to get everyone in the world connected, to give everyone a voice and to help transform society for the future. The scale of the technology and infrastructure that must be built is unprecedented, and we believe this is the most important problem we can focus on.
We hope to strengthen how people relate to each other.
Even if our mission sounds big, it starts small — with the relationship between two people.
Personal relationships are the fundamental unit of our society. Relationships are how we discover new ideas, understand our world and ultimately derive long-term happiness.
At Facebook, we build tools to help people connect with the people they want and share what they want, and by doing this we are extending people’s capacity to build and maintain relationships.
People sharing more — even if just with their close friends or families — creates a more open culture and leads to a better understanding of the lives and perspectives of others. We believe that this creates a greater number of stronger relationships between people, and that it helps people get exposed to a greater number of diverse perspectives.
By helping people form these connections, we hope to rewire the way people spread and consume information. We think the world’s information infrastructure should resemble the social graph — a network built from the bottom up or peer-to-peer, rather than the monolithic, top-down structure that has existed to date. We also believe that giving people control over what they share is a fundamental principle of this rewiring.
We have already helped more than 800 million people map out more than 100 billion connections so far, and our goal is to help this rewiring accelerate.
We hope to improve how people connect to businesses and the economy.
We think a more open and connected world will help create a stronger economy with more authentic businesses that build better products and services.
As people share more, they have access to more opinions from the people they trust about the products and services they use. This makes it easier to discover the best products and improve the quality and efficiency of their lives.
One result of making it easier to find better products is that businesses will be rewarded for building better products — ones that are personalized and designed around people. We have found that products that are “social by design” tend to be more engaging than their traditional counterparts, and we look forward to seeing more of the world’s products move in this direction.
Our developer platform has already enabled hundreds of thousands of businesses to build higher-quality and more social products. We have seen disruptive new approaches in industries like games, music and news, and we expect to see similar disruption in more industries by new approaches that are social by design.
In addition to building better products, a more open world will also encourage businesses to engage with their customers directly and authentically. More than four million businesses have Pages on Facebook that they use to have a dialogue with their customers. We expect this trend to grow as well.
We hope to change how people relate to their governments and social institutions.
We believe building tools to help people share can bring a more honest and transparent dialogue around government that could lead to more direct empowerment of people, more accountability for officials and better solutions to some of the biggest problems of our time.
By giving people the power to share, we are starting to see people make their voices heard on a different scale from what has historically been possible. These voices will increase in number and volume. They cannot be ignored. Over time, we expect governments will become more responsive to issues and concerns raised directly by all their people rather than through intermediaries controlled by a select few.
Through this process, we believe that leaders will emerge across all countries who are pro-internet and fight for the rights of their people, including the right to share what they want and the right to access all information that people want to share with them.
Finally, as more of the economy moves towards higher-quality products that are personalized, we also expect to see the emergence of new services that are social by design to address the large worldwide problems we face in job creation, education and health care. We look forward to doing what we can to help this progress.
Our Mission and Our Business
As I said above, Facebook was not originally founded to be a company. We’ve always cared primarily about our social mission, the services we’re building and the people who use them. This is a different approach for a public company to take, so I want to explain why I think it works.
I started off by writing the first version of Facebook myself because it was something I wanted to exist. Since then, most of the ideas and code that have gone into Facebook have come from the great people we’ve attracted to our team.
Most great people care primarily about building and being a part of great things, but they also want to make money. Through the process of building a team — and also building a developer community, advertising market and investor base — I’ve developed a deep appreciation for how building a strong company with a strong economic engine and strong growth can be the best way to align many people to solve important problems.
Simply put: we don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.
And we think this is a good way to build something. These days I think more and more people want to use services from companies that believe in something beyond simply maximizing profits.
By focusing on our mission and building great services, we believe we will create the most value for our shareholders and partners over the long term — and this in turn will enable us to keep attracting the best people and building more great services. We don’t wake up in the morning with the primary goal of making money, but we understand that the best way to achieve our mission is to build a strong and valuable company.
This is how we think about our IPO as well. We’re going public for our employees and our investors. We made a commitment to them when we gave them equity that we’d work hard to make it worth a lot and make it liquid, and this IPO is fulfilling our commitment. As we become a public company, we’re making a similar commitment to our new investors and we will work just as hard to fulfill it.
The Hacker Way
As part of building a strong company, we work hard at making Facebook the best place for great people to have a big impact on the world and learn from other great people. We have cultivated a unique culture and management approach that we call the Hacker Way.
The word “hacker” has an unfairly negative connotation from being portrayed in the media as people who break into computers. In reality, hacking just means building something quickly or testing the boundaries of what can be done. Like most things, it can be used for good or bad, but the vast majority of hackers I’ve met tend to be idealistic people who want to have a positive impact on the world.
The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo.
Hackers try to build the best services over the long term by quickly releasing and learning from smaller iterations rather than trying to get everything right all at once. To support this, we have built a testing framework that at any given time can try out thousands of versions of Facebook. We have the words “Done is better than perfect” painted on our walls to remind ourselves to always keep shipping.
Hacking is also an inherently hands-on and active discipline. Instead of debating for days whether a new idea is possible or what the best way to build something is, hackers would rather just prototype something and see what works. There’s a hacker mantra that you’ll hear a lot around Facebook offices: “Code wins arguments.”
Hacker culture is also extremely open and meritocratic. Hackers believe that the best idea and implementation should always win — not the person who is best at lobbying for an idea or the person who manages the most people.
To encourage this approach, every few months we have a hackathon, where everyone builds prototypes for new ideas they have. At the end, the whole team gets together and looks at everything that has been built. Many of our most successful products came out of hackathons, including Timeline, chat, video, our mobile development framework and some of our most important infrastructure like the HipHop compiler.
To make sure all our engineers share this approach, we require all new engineers — even managers whose primary job will not be to write code — to go through a program called Bootcamp where they learn our codebase, our tools and our approach. There are a lot of folks in the industry who manage engineers and don’t want to code themselves, but the type of hands-on people we’re looking for are willing and able to go through Bootcamp.
The examples above all relate to engineering, but we have distilled these principles into five core values for how we run Facebook:
Focus on Impact
If we want to have the biggest impact, the best way to do this is to make sure we always focus on solving the most important problems. It sounds simple, but we think most companies do this poorly and waste a lot of time. We expect everyone at Facebook to be good at finding the biggest problems to work on.
Move Fast
Moving fast enables us to build more things and learn faster. However, as most companies grow, they slow down too much because they’re more afraid of making mistakes than they are of losing opportunities by moving too slowly. We have a saying: “Move fast and break things.” The idea is that if you never break anything, you’re probably not moving fast enough.
Be Bold
Building great things means taking risks. This can be scary and prevents most companies from doing the bold things they should. However, in a world that’s changing so quickly, you’re guaranteed to fail if you don’t take any risks. We have another saying: “The riskiest thing is to take no risks.” We encourage everyone to make bold decisions, even if that means being wrong some of the time.
Be Open
We believe that a more open world is a better world because people with more information can make better decisions and have a greater impact. That goes for running our company as well. We work hard to make sure everyone at Facebook has access to as much information as possible about every part of the company so they can make the best decisions and have the greatest impact.
Build Social Value
Once again, Facebook exists to make the world more open and connected, and not just to build a company. We expect everyone at Facebook to focus every day on how to build real value for the world in everything they do.
Thanks for taking the time to read this letter. We believe that we have an opportunity to have an important impact on the world and build a lasting company in the process. I look forward to building something great together.
中文版：
Facebook的创建目的并非成为一家公司。它的诞生，是为了践行一种社会使命：让世界更加开放，更加紧密相连。
对于投资者而言，理解这一使命对于我们的意义，理解我们如何做出决定，以及我们为什么从事现在的工作，是一件非常重要的事情。我将在本文中阐述这些问题。
科技改变了人们传播和消费信息的方式，我们为之感到鼓舞。我们经常谈论印刷媒体和电视等发明——通过提高通信效率，它们发端了众多社会关键领域的深刻变革。它们让更多的人能够发出自己的声音，鼓励进步，改变社会组织方式，使我们更紧密地联系在一起。
今天，我们的社会走到了新的临界点。我们所处的时代，是一个大多数人都能够使用互联网和手机的时代——它们是分享所思、所感和所为的基本工具。Facebook渴望提供服务，使人们拥有分享的力量，帮助他们再一次改造众多核心机构和产业。
让每个人紧密联接，能够发出自己的声音，并推动社会的未来变革，是一种迫切需求，也是一个巨大机遇。人类需要建设的技术基础设施的规模亘古未有；我们认为，这是值得关注的最重要的问题。
我们希望巩固人与人之间的联系
尽管这一使命博大宽泛，但“风起于青萍之末”，我们将从“两人关系”迈出第一步。
人际关系是社会的基本构成单元，是我们发现创意、理解世界并最终获得长久幸福的必经之途。Facebook创造多种工具，帮助人们相互联系，分享观点，并以此拓展人们建立和维护人际关系的能力。
人们分享得越多——即便只是与密友或家人分享——文化就越开放，对于他人的生活和观点的理解也就越深。我们认为，它能够创造更多、更强的人际关系，并帮助人们接触到更多不同观点。
我们希望通过帮助人们建立关系，重塑信息的传播和消费方式。我们认为，世界信息基础架构应当与社交图谱类似——它是一个自下而上的对等网络，而不是目前这种自上而下的单体结构。此外，让人们自主决定分享哪些内容，是重塑架构的基本原则。
截至目前，我们已经帮助逾8亿人建立了超过1000亿个联系；我们的目标是推动这种重塑进程加速向前。
我们希望改善人们与企业和经济体系的联系
我们认为，一个更加开放、联系更加紧密的世界，将有助于创建更加强健的经济体系，培育更多提供更好产品和服务的真正意义上的企业。
人们分享得越多，他们就能够通过自己信赖的人，获得更多有关产品和服务的信息。他们能够更加轻松地找到最佳产品，并提高生活品质和效率。
在这一过程中，企业获得的益处是：他们能够制造更好的产品——即以人为本的个性化产品。我们发现，与传统商品相比，那些“社交化设计”(social by design)的产品更富有吸引力。我们预计，将有更多产品走上这条道路。
借助Facebook开发者平台，成千上万的企业开发出质量更高、社交特性更强的产品。游戏、音乐和新闻行业在Facebook平台上取得突破发展，更多行业在“社交化设计”理念的指引下也将迎来变革。
除了制造更好的产品，一个更加开放的世界还将鼓励企业与客户展开直接而可靠的互动。超过400万家企业在Facebook上开设了企业主页(Pages)，与客户进行对话。我们预计，这一趋势将继续发展。
我们希望改变人们与政府和社会机构的联系
我们认为，开发帮助人们分享的工具，能够推动民众与政府坦诚而透明的对话，赋予民众更加直接的权力，增强官员的责任感，并为当代一些最为重大的问题提供更好解决方案。
我们看到，人们在获得分享能力后，他们的声音和观点从未如此清晰响亮。这些声音的数量和影响力上都大大提高，无法忽略。我们认为，随着时间的推移，各国政府将更加积极地应对全体民众直接表达的问题和关切，而不是通过部分精英控制的中间机构听取民声民意。
我们认为，在这一过程中，世界各国都会出现善待互联网、为民权而奋斗的领导人。他们所争取的权利之一，是获取和分享一切信息的权利。
最终，随着更多经济体转向个性化高质量产品，我们预计能够解决创造就业岗位、教育和健康医疗等重大世界问题的社交新服务将出现。我们期待为这一进程尽其所能。
我们的使命和业务
如前所述，Facebook的创建目的并非成为一家公司。我们始终将自己的社会使命、正在开发的服务以及用户放在首要地位。对于一家上市公司而言，这可谓“不走寻常路”。因此，我希望解释其中缘由。
我自己编写了Facebook的首个版本。从那时起，大量优秀人才加入团队，并将自己的创意和代码融入Facebook。
大多数优秀人才都把开发优秀产品、从事伟大事业放在首要地位，但他们也想赚钱。通过建设人才团队，建立开发者社区、营销市场和投资者群体，我深刻体会到：荟萃精英以解决重要问题的最佳方式，是成立一家资本雄厚、成长强劲的茁壮企业。一言以蔽之：我们并非为了赚钱而开发服务，而是赚钱以开发更好服务。我们认为，这是一种很好的做事方法。我意识到，如今越来越多的人希望使用那些眼光不局限于利润最大化的企业所提供的服务。
通过践行自我使命，开发优秀服务，我们将为股东和合作伙伴长期创造最大价值。而这将使我们能够吸引最优秀人才，提供更多优秀服务。早晨醒来，我们的第一要务并不是赚钱；但是我们知道，使命必达的最佳方式是建设一家富有价值的强大企业。
这也是我们对启动IPO的看法。上市是为了惠及雇员和投资者。我们曾在分发股份时承诺，将竭尽全力提高股票价值，促进股票流通；如今，我们兑现了承诺。在即将成为上市公司之际，我们将对新的投资者作出类似承诺，并付出同等努力。
黑客文化
为了建设一家强大企业，我们努力将Facebook打造成优秀人才施展才华的最佳平台，以期对世界施加重大影响。我们培育了独一无二的企业文化和管理方式——黑客文化(Hacker Way)。
由于媒体将“黑客”描绘成入侵电脑为非作歹的人群，这个称呼带有贬义色彩，这是不公平的。事实上，“黑客”仅仅意味着快速开发，或是挑战力所能为之界限。与许多事情一样，它是一把“双刃剑”；然而，我结识的绝大多数黑客都是理想主义者，希望对世界做出积极贡献。
黑客文化是一种持续改进和衍变创新的做事方法。黑客们认为，优化无止境，产品无完美。当有人说无法改动一丝一毫，或是对现状心满意得时，黑客们却当着别人的面，情不自禁动手修改。
黑客们迅速发布小规模更新，并从中汲取经验教训，而不是试图一蹴而就，一劳永逸；他们希望通过长久努力打造最佳服务。为此，我们建成了一个测试框架，无论何时均可测试数千个版本的Facebook。我们的办公室墙上写着“完成优于完美”，以提醒大家按时“交差”。
“黑客”也意味着一种亲身实践、积极进取的天然纪律。黑客们不会召开长达数天的马拉松会议，以讨论某个创意是否可行，或是寻找最佳方法；他们会制作原型产品，看看是否行得通。在Facebook的办公室里，黑客们的口头禅是：“代码胜于雄辩”。
“黑客”还意味着极度开放和精英为王。黑客们认为，最优秀的创意和实现始终横扫一切——而不是由最善于鼓吹创意，或是权力最大的人掌控一切。
为培育黑客文化，我们每隔几个月就会举行一次“黑客马拉松”(hackathon)大赛，让人们依照自己的创意开发原型产品。最后，整个团队共同评判这些产品。Facebook最成功的一些产品就来自于“黑客马拉松”，包括时间线(Timeline)、聊天、视频、移动开发架构以及HipHop 编译器等。
为了保证所有的工程师都融入黑客文化，Facebook要求所有新入职的工程师——包括那些将来并非主要从事编程工作的经理——参加Bootcamp训练营，学习我们的代码库、工具和方法。业内有许多人负责管理工程师团队，并不愿亲自动手编写代码；然而，我们寻找的实践型人才都希望也能够经受Bootcamp的检验。
以上案例均与工程有关，但我们可以将这些原则概括为Facebook的五个核心价值：
专注于影响力
如果我们希望具有最大影响力，最佳方法是始终专注于解决最重要的问题。这听上去很简单，但我们认为，大多数公司表现糟糕，浪费了大量时间。我们期望Facebook的每一个人善于发现最大问题，并力图解决。
迅速行动
迅速行动使我们能够开发更多东西，更快地学习知识。但是，大多数公司一旦成长，发展速度就会大大放慢，因为与行动缓慢导致错失机遇相比，他们更害怕犯错。我们的信念是：“迅速行动，打破常规”。如果你从不打破常规，你的行动速度就可能不够快。
勇往直前
开发优秀产品意味着承担风险。这让人恐惧，迫使大多数公司对于冒险望而却步。但是，在瞬息万变的世界中，不愿冒险就注定失败。我们的另一个信念是：“最大的风险就是不承担风险。”我们鼓励每个人勇往直前，即使有时这意味着犯错。
保持开放
我们认为，世界越开放越美好。因为人们拥有更多信息，就能够做出更好的决定，对社会施加更好的影响。这也是Facebook的运营理念。我们竭力确保Facebook的每一个人能够尽可能多地接触到公司各个方面的信息，这样他们就能做出最佳决策，对公司产生最佳影响。
创造社会价值
Facebook存在的意义，是让世界更加开放和紧密相连，并非仅仅是开办一家公司。我们期望，Facebook的每一个人，无时无刻都要致力于为世界创造真正价值，并将这一理念融入自己所做的每一件事情。
感谢阅读本信。我们相信，Facebook有机会在全球发挥重要影响，成为一家长青企业。我期待与大家共创伟业。
转载自：
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000119312512034517/d287954ds1.htm#toc287954_10
http://tech.sina.com.cn/i/2012-02-02/08476676940.shtml