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David Marcus (born April 12, 1973) is an American entrepreneur. He is the co-creator of Diem, a cryptocurrency project initiated by Facebook. He is the former president of PayPal and Vice President of Messaging Products at Facebook where he ran the Facebook Messenger unit from 2014 until 2018. In December 2017, Marcus was appointed to the Coinbase Board of Directors, from which he stepped down in 2018. In 2021, he stepped down from Facebook.
Marcus was born on April 12, 1973 in Paris, France to a Romanian father and Iranian mother. He grew up in Geneva, Switzerland. At the age of 8, he learned basic computer coding. Marcus attended the University of Geneva for one year before dropping out initially to support his family by working at a bank and later to pursue an entrepreneurial career.
In 1996 at age 23 Marcus founded GTN Telecom, a Geneva-based provider of internet access and telephone service. He was the Chairman and CEO of that company until it was acquired by World Access in 2000. After that, Marcus founded Echovox, a mobile media monetization company. In 2008, he founded Zong, an offshoot of Echovox that allowed users to pay for items online directly through their mobile phone bills.
Zong was acquired by eBay's PayPal in August 2011 for $240 million, and Marcus joined PayPal as vice president and general manager of the company's Mobile Division. PayPal's mobile division launched PayPal Here, an offline mobile card reader service. In April 2012 Marcus replaced Scott Thompson as President of PayPal after Thompson went to Yahoo. In September 2013, Marcus oversaw PayPal's $800-million acquisition of Braintree (the parent company of Venmo).
In June 2014, Marcus left PayPal to join Facebook as its Vice President of Messaging Products. There he oversaw the development of the Facebook Messenger mobile app. The app reached 1 billion active users in July 2016. Marcus is credited with the introduction of Messenger's P2P payment platform which was released in the United States in June 2015. Marcus would later help implement business payments on the platform.
In December 2017, Marcus was appointed to the Board of Directors of the cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase. According to the announcement, he was chosen based on his experience with digital payments at both PayPal and Facebook and his knowledge of cryptocurrency. He is also considered an early promoter of cryptocurrency.
In May, 2018, Marcus moved from Vice President of Messaging Products to lead the experimental blockchain group at Facebook. In August 2018, Marcus left the board at Coinbase, at least in part to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest with his work on Facebook.
By February 2019, The New York Times reported that Marcus was head of a program to develop a cryptocurrency that users of WhatsApp (which is owned by Facebook) could transfer in order to facilitate cross-border payments. In June 2019, Marcus and Facebook announced Libra, a cryptocurrency managed by Facebook and other companies as the Libra Association. Marcus was placed in charge of Calibra, a subsidiary of Facebook created for the project. According to Clare Duffy, writing for CNN Business, "criticism from politicians, regulators and finance experts came swiftly." Concern was raised that Libra would be destabilizing to global currencies and central banking, and that Libra would give Facebook even more control and more personal information than it already has. Libra's announcement also coincided with a multi-state antitrust probe of Facebook (see Federal Trade Commission v. Facebook). In July 2019, Marcus was called to testify before the US Senate Banking Committee regarding Libra. He stated that Libra would not be launched without approval from regulators.
In May 2020, Calibra was renamed Novi, which would also be the name of a proposed cryptocurrency wallet offered by Facebook. In August 2020, Marcus was placed in charge of the Facebook Financial (F2) division, which would handle Facebook's payment service and Whatsapp Pay in some countries. Marcus continued to work to gain regulatory approval for Facebook to use Libra for international payments. In December 2020, Libra was renamed Diem, and the Libra Association was renamed the Diem Association. This change was to emphasize changes made to the plan following its harsh reception from regulators. Marcus is one of five board members of the Diem Association.
In November 2021, Marcus announced that he would be leaving Facebook (recently renamed Meta) at the end of the year. Stephane Kasriel is scheduled to take over as head of Meta's financial services division.
Board Member
Diem Association
Oct 2019 - Dec 2021
Meta
- Head of Novi
May 2018 - Dec 2021
Menlo Park, California, United States
- Head of Messenger
Aug 2014 - May 2018
Menlo Park, California
Member Board Of Directors
Tipping Point Community
Feb 2017 - June 2019
Member Board Of Directors
Coinbase
Dec 2017 - Aug 2018
San Francisco Bay Area
PayPal
- President
Apr 2012 - July 2014
San Francisco Bay Area
- Vice President / GM, Mobile
Aug 2011 - Apr 2012
San Jose, CA
Founder and CEO
Zong (acquired by eBay/PayPal)
Apr 2008 - Aug 2011
Menlo Park, CA
Founder & CEO
Echovox (acquired by management / MBO)
Oct 2000 - Jan 2010
Chairman
echo6 (acquired by M6)
Oct 2006 - June 2008
Founder, Chairman & CEO
GTN Telecom (acquired by World Access)
Sept 1996 - Oct 2000
David Marcus made 14 investments among which are the following:
Nov 16, 2021 Justt — Series B - $50M
Oct 3, 2018 Truebill — Series A - $5M
Jun 26, 2018 Shone — Seed Round - $4M
May 1, 2017 Prefer — Series A
Apr 1, 2017 Headnote — Seed Round
Mar 22, 2016 Truebill — Seed Round - $350K
Feb 1, 2016 IvyMark — Seed Round - $2.9M
Jan 28, 2015 Insensi — Seed Round - $2.4M
Oct 22, 2014 Boostable — Seed Round - $3.2M
Jul 8, 2014 Xapo — Series A - $20M
