16 Dec 2010

Facebook co-founder is Time person of year

8:17 am on 16 December 2010

Time magazine has named Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg as its Person of the Year.

The story of his early career was told in the film Social Network one of the box office hits of 2010.

Time managing editor Richard Stengel said Mr Zuckerberg's social networking service was transforming the way people live their lives every day.

In a statement, Mr Zuckerberg said the Time award was recognition of how the company's team is building something that hundreds of millions of people want to use to make the world more open and connected.

Mr Zuckerberg, estimated to be worth $US6.9 billion, is one of the richest people in the US, and earlier this month he became one of the latest billionaires to pledge to give away the majority of his wealth.

The winner of the magazine's award last year was US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.

The annual feature has been a fixture of the magazine since the 1920s, with the winner appearing on the front cover of the magazine.