Reclusive Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg made an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show to provide a rare glimpse of his house and dispute suggestions that a recent $100 million endowment to a school is part of his company's efforts to counter the effects of an unflattering film.

Zuckerberg allowed the talk show host to film his surprisingly ordinary house, which he rents along with his girlfriend Priscilla Chan. The segment shows minimal furniture inside the house, which is surprising considering that Forbes recently released estimates that Zuckerberg is worth about $US6.9 billion. The figure is more than the estimated fortune of Rupert Murdoch and Steve Jobs.

Zuckerberg also gave a tour of Facebook's headquarters, where it was revealed that he spends up to 16 hours a day in the office. He appeared on the talk show because of his $US100 million gift to Newark, New Jersey public schools.

The donation comes after the release of the movie The Social Network. The film, which was directed by David Fincher, portrayed Zuckerberg as a merciless geek who betrayed his college friends when he created the social networking Web site.

He denied that the donation was part of a charm offensive, saying the endowment was driven by the needs of kids in Newark.

"Every child deserves a good education and right now that's not happening. I've had a lot of opportunities in my life and a lot of that comes from having gone to really good schools," Zuckerberg said.

On the show, Winfrey said that Zuckerberg requested to make his donation but "we talked you into coming on here". She adds that it was supposed to be announced several weeks ago but was moved until the show aired.