Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg was sighted in a Bangkok, Thailand bar on Monday night after he apparently arrived in the city to attend a friend’s wedding. According to the Thai newspaper, The Nation, Zuckerberg is in town for Facebook vice-president Chris Cox’s wedding. Cox will be marrying a Thai woman in a restaurant in downtown Bangkok on Wednesday night. With Facebook one of the most popular internet sites in Thailand, Thai youth are going crazy over the idea they might actually be able to bump into their hero, Zuckerberg, so he should probably get ready for being stalked.
Mark Zuckerberg was first seen on Monday night in a well-known Bangkok bar, Enchanted Bar. It’s in one of the trendiest areas of Bangkok, Thong Lor, so not surprising a celebrity like Zuckerberg would be there. What did seem surprising, to Zuckerberg himself, was the bar was absolutely packed and he couldn’t get a front row seat. In fact, he couldn’t get any seat at all, as the place was fully reserved for a concert by popular Thai band, Room 39, who were playing there Monday night.
After some discussion about seats and being told by the bar they couldn’t get them, Zuckerberg and the friends he was out with left. He hasn’t been spotted since. With hordes of young Thai people knowing he’s now in town though, that’s not likely to be the reality for long. Mark Zuckerberg photos will be popping up all over Thai Facebook soon.
Facebook is one of Thailand’s most popular internet sites, with Thais obsessively spending half their lives on it. Every Thai friend I have is now on Facebook and many of them spend 3-4 hours a day there, uploading photos, chatting with friends and, of course, playing FarmVille and Mafia Wars.
On the other hand, I rarely use my Facebook account and don’t upload personal information or share much of anything with my Thai friends. Thais unfortunately are often quite naive when it comes to sharing personal information so put up photos of every event they’ve ever attended, boatloads of information about their jobs and what they do there, and are not as aware of privacy issues as are many westerners. The information they put up will, I fear, one day get some of them in trouble, and I don’t want any of my personal information linked to it.
Of course though, countries like Thailand must be a gold mine for someone like Mark Zuckerberg who has no interest in protecting people’s privacy as long as he can make money from it. Maybe that’s why he’s in Bangkok, Thailand. Sure, he’s attending a friend’s wedding but what else is he doing here? Suspicious about Zuckerberg? Me? You betcha.