Mark Zuckerberg tackles Facebook users' questions in a session on his page

SAN FRANCISCO - Mark Zuckerberg spends his "whole life" focused on the Facebook mission, he told the social media website's users during a question-and-answer session.

He said he likely spends no more than 50-60 hours a week in the office, but "if you count all the time I'm focused on our mission, that's basically my whole life."

The Facebook founder spent an hour fielding questions on his Facebook page from ordinary users, as well as billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson and singer Shakira.

And he tackled a number of subjects, from the weighty (his support of net neutrality), to the more personal (his tips on learning Mandarin).

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He also fielded a request for more photographs of his dog Beast (above).

One of the best moments of the Tuesday session came when a "Brit" asked if Facebook could add a sarcasm button.

"Sure, we'll get right on that," Zuckerberg wrote with a smiley-face emoticon.

He ignored a number of questions (such as requests for a "dislike" button).

He also declined to guess the colour of "the dress", which went viral recently for appearing to be either white and gold, or blue and black, to different viewers.

It was the latest public appearance for Zuckerberg, who has held town halls in the US, Colombia and Spain.

SOME HIGHLIGHTS:

On how technology can be used as an educational tool for disadvantaged communities (asked by Shakira):

"I'm very excited about personalised learning - giving everyone the ability to use technology to learn what they're most interested in and at their own pace."

On the benefits of wider Internet access (asked by Sir Richard Branson):

When we talk about connecting the world, most people talk about the clear benefits to all the people who will get Internet access and don't have it today. Those benefits are many: access to education, health information, jobs and so on. Many people estimate that for every billion people we connect, we'll raise more than 100 million out of poverty.

But one thing that we often overlook in this discussion is how everyone who is already connected will benefit from having everyone online.

Think about how many brilliant entrepreneurs there are out there who have great ideas and the will to change the world, but just lack basic tools to do so today. If you go by the population, almost 2/3 of these entrepreneurs don't have internet access today. Once they get connected, we may have 3x as many good ideas and amazing new services built that will benefit everyone around the world.

On his vision for Oculus virtual reality:

"Our mission is to give people the power to experience anything."

On how many hours he works:

"That depends on what you count as work. I spend most of my time thinking about how to connect the world and serve our community better, but a lot of that time isn't in our office or meeting with people or doing what you'd call real work. I take a lot of time just to read and think about things by myself. If you count the time I'm in the office, it's probably no more than 50-60 hours a week. But if you count all the time I'm focused on our mission, that's basically my whole life."

On net neutrality:

"I think net neutrality is important to make sure network operators don't discriminate and limit access to services people want to use, especially in countries where most people are online. For people who are not on the internet though, having some connectivity and some ability to share is always much better than having no ability to connect and share at all. That's why programs like Internet.org are important and can co-exist with net neutrality regulations."

On whether Facebook will expand Internet.org to Europe:

"Yes, we want to bring Internet.org everywhere where there are people who need to be connected. We're starting off by prioritizing the countries with the most unconnected people and by working with network operators and governments who are most excited about working with Internet.org to get everyone online in their countries."

On the secret to success:

"Don't give up."

On learning Mandarin:

"The key is just practice. Learning a language is extremely humbling because there's no way to 'figure it out' by just being clever. You just have to put in the time and let it seep into your mind."

On the fiction book he's currently reading:

Orwell's Revenge.

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