Pizarro: San Jose State student wins $1 million from Chase in Facebook contest
Originally published by the San Jose Mercury News Nov. 18, 2011.
By Sal Pizarro
San Jose State student Steven Haryono became Silicon Valley’s latest millionaire this week.
The 22-year-old didn’t design a killer app or cash in on Yelp’s IPO. Instead, Haryono was announced as the winner of Chase Bank’s “Chase Freedom” Million Dollar Sweepstakes contest on Facebook. Sometime last month, he was one of thousands of people to click “like” on the Chase Freedom page. On Oct. 26, his name was selected in a random drawing, and he picked up the requisite giant check for $1 million this week at a Chase branch in Fremont, where he lives.
A Chase spokesman said Haryono was unavailable for interviews Friday, so I couldn’t find out his plans for the windfall. No doubt he’s got a million things on his mind right now.