Zuckerberg claims it’s not about the money, while explaining how Libra will make money
Illustration by William Joel / The Verge
Libra will make money for Facebook by increasing the price of digital ads, Mark Zuckerberg explained at a hearing on Capitol Hill today. The answer came in response to a question posed by Congressman David Kustoff (R-Tenn), who cut through Zuckerberg’s typical explanation about the project being largely charitable.
“When you came up with this idea and went to your board of directors, how did you tell them that Facebook could monetize or profit from the creation or use of Libra and Calibra?” the congressman asked.
“Well, Congressman, you may not believe this, but that’s actually not the first thing that we talk about at the company,” Zuckerberg responded. “We focus on building services that are going to create value in people’s lives, and...