Are you aware that Ed Sheeran is one of—and was not that long ago the—best selling music artist in the world?

The fact you only nitpicked a single name from that list is, I think, quite telling. We know who Zuckerberg is. Non-tech-nerds just going on with their lives don’t for the most part, even if they use apps from Meta. If they even heard the name, it was due to some negative news related to Facebook or Meta.

This is some data about US:

https://today.yougov.com/ratings/entertainment/fame/people/a...

Zuckerberg is 49, Sheeran is 169 (Taylor Swift is on 4; Bieber, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé are also more famous than Zuckerberg; the rest in the list are less famous)

> This is some data about US

Which, by definition, is incomplete when we’re talking about the world. If we examined by country, it would fluctuate wildly. For example, in any country with soccer as the national sport, Ronaldo would crush Zuckerberg in popularity.

Either way, the point (in which I think we’re all mostly in agreement) is that Zuckerberg’s comment falls somewhere between the absurd and the delusional. If you want to pick a different list of names, go right ahead. I’d say Tailor Swift is indisputable, though.

This absolutely does not translate into him being well-known.

People don't buy Facebook ads or make Facebook accounts because Mark Zuckerberg is there, but they do buy Ed Sheeran music because it has the name "Ed Sheeran" written on it.

That said, I'm not into music and assumed he was a footballer.

> That said, I'm not into music and assumed he was a footballer.

Same (minus the footballer part). When I was made aware of Ed Sheeran, he was already the biggest artist in the world. But that says something about me and my general disinterest for music and pop culture, not Sheeran’s popularity.

The Millennial age group is 29 to 44 years and most of these people used FB in college and saw the social network.

It's true, I picked him because he was the obvious laggard in that list of celebrities (he is by far the least talented of everyone else in the list) . The poll someone else posted shows in the US, Zuckerberg is more well known than Sheeran.

100%. I think people are way more likely to know the name of one of their favorite artists versus the owner of an online platform, no matter what that platform is.

To be fair, knowing someone's name is only one property of many when it comes to knowing them. It is technically possible — although perhaps unlikely — for someone to be more well-known than another even without having a recognizable name.

Zuckerberg probably is more well-known than Ed Sheeran. "Ed Sheeran", the name, may be more familiar, but what do typical people really know about the details of his life? Zuckerberg, on the other hand, had a movie made about him. At least everyone knows about Taylor Swift's dating life, if we want to compare to music celebrities.

Still, imagine Prince William or Prince Harry have to be most well-known. They've been chronicled since birth. Especially when you look past an Americentric view and turn to the world stage.

Yes.