Ignition, New York: Facebook boss says Google+ is “flattering”

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO was on stage to launch day two of the Ignition conference in New York. One of the key questions posed to her was, will Facebook be bigger than Google?

“We are in it for the long run; it’s about building a business. Our number one priority was building the user base and now it’s about growing engagement too and making it a really useful bit of your life. We want to be useful and grow a great advertising business where people get information from companies they like.”

Sandberg then commented on the growth of social media. ” The parties we are working with most deeply are media. Social is about music, video and news. We are only 1% there.”

She was then drawn to comment on Google+. “Google+ is flattering. We knew they were working on this. There were several versions. It’s not surprising they got to a solution like ours. However, we think a company unilaterally focused on social is going to do well.”

On Google itself, Sandberg commented, “I don’t think Google is evil. With the market power it has, it has real responsibility for fair competition. We care a lot that android sticks to its public commitment to openness.”

On maintaining an upward curve she said, “most companies have an up and down curve. Google has avoided that so far. We would like to as well. We want to be honest. Our biggest risk is us, that we mess it up. We have spent time with Walmart learning from them, about how they have sustained it.”

And on women in the boardroom, “you have to do better than my generation did. In corporate America in the last 15 years women have made no progress. Women lean back too early to create balance in their lives. Men lean in to their careers.  Be ambitious. Start out wanting to get to the top.”