Mark Zuckerberg talks about his mistakes, his goals and his new-found spirituality at tech summit

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks about “News Tab” at the Paley Center, Friday, Oct. 25, 2019 in New York. | Mark Lennihan, Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY — Mark Zuckerberg spoke candidly about his company, and himself, in a wide-ranging discussion at the Silicon Slopes Tech Summit on Friday evening.

Zuckerberg started off with a minor gaff that earned chuckles throughout the packed house at the Salt Palace Convention Center, misidentifying the home of Facebook’s new Utah data center as being in Eagle Rock, rather than Eagle Mountain. But it also gave him an opportunity to address what he called one of his biggest challenges.

“Look, let’s be real here,” Zuckerberg said. “Communication is not my best thing.”

He also offered a recounting of the mistakes he’s made along the way to growing the biggest social media company in the world. And, when asked about who he seeks out for mentorship, Zuckerberg had a response that got a round of applause from the Utah audience.

“The last few years have been really humbling for me,” Zuckerberg said. “I’ve become more religious.”

In spite of controversies over the handling of customer data and targeted political advertising, as well as recent troubles associated with the company’s announced plans to create its own cryptocurrency called Libra, Facebook remains one of the most valuable companies in the world. At the end of regular trading Friday, Facebook’s market capitalization was over $575 billion — the company trails only Apple, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, and Amazon as the most valuable U.S. tech companies.

As of late last year, Facebook reportedly had almost 2.5 billion users, with some 1.6 billion who log on to the platform daily.

Zuckerberg’s public engagements, outside the company’s annual user/developer conference, are rare. Over the past year, his most notable appearances included testifying before two U.S. congressional committees last spring over data handling issues and the Cambridge Analytica data breach, and a speech at Georgetown University last October that focused on free expression.

This story will be updated.

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