Facebook’s Internet.org project to provide basic mobile Internet services for free just took its biggest step to date after
it launched in India.
The service, which is run by
Internet.org with input from a number of telecom industry partners, has thus far been available in a handful of
African countries and
Colombia, but now it is making its way to India’s billion-plus population.
The app isn’t available to the full Indian population yet, since Facebook partnered with operator Reliance to offer free access to Internet.org sites in an initial six states: Tamil Nadu, Mahararashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, and Telangana. That’s the first step on a path to “provide Internet access to more than a billion people in India who aren’t yet connected,” Facebook said in a statement.
“Most” of the services on Internet.org are available in English and six local languages — Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Gujarati and Marathi — and they can be accessed via the dedicated Android app, the start screen on Opera’s Mini browser or from UCWeb’s popular UC Browser app.
There are an initial 38 websites and services bundled into the free service in India. The selection ranges from Facebook and Facebook Messenger (of course), to news services — BBC, Reuters, ESPN and India Today — music site Hungama, news aggregator NewsHunt, Wikipedia and government relations site AP Speaks. Other general services include travel, weather, sports and parenting information.
Expansion to India has been on the cards for some time after Facebook launched a $1 million fund dedicated to making apps for India at its Internet.org summit in New Delhi last year.
Emerging markets are an important focus for Facebook since it has long become a mainstream service in Western markets, and the lion’s share of new Internet users will come online from Africa, Asia and Latin America… via mobile phones. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously likened Internet.org to a 911 telephone call, that’s to say that basic services should be available to everyone on the planet without charge in the same way that you can call the cops for free.
Of course, the benefits of more people trying out mobile Internet services is that they might find the web compelling and go out and buy a smartphone, data plan or pre-pay SIM with mobile Internet. That’s good news for Facebook — more advertising eyeballs and users — not to mention the online/telecom industry in general, which explains the involvement of companies like Samsung, Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia and Opera.
Aside from Internet.org, Facebook recently piloted a new ‘Lite’ version of its service for Android devices. That app — which is based on Facebook’s
Taptu Snaptu feature phone service — is specifically designed to work well with low-end phones and flaky data connections, providing users in emerging markets another option for spending time on the social network.
WHAT MIGHT BE HIDDEN MOTIVE (source)
Zuckerberg’s altruism is questioned here; does he want internet to be more accessible or Facebook since there is no market left for him in the developed countries. So basically in these countries the growth of Facebook is almost stranded. In these developing countries, poverty and lack of food are bigger issues to be addressed than internet accessibility.
To this, Zuckerberg says, “The reason why they’re not on [the Internet] is they don’t know why they would want to get access to it.”
Internet.org on the field
Facebook has partnered with Bharti Airtel which propagates its subscribers in Kenya to access Internet.org which provides access to basic internet services for health, education, finance, employment, communication and local information related issues. Data will only be charged when one tries to access services outside the free basic ones. But the same question is asked again that people go hungry in Kenya, most of the natives are poverty stricken. Then how will they afford internet or better data plans? It will be mean to show them the benefits of internet and then tempt them to spend money to get more out it, because that is something most people in Kenya will fail to do.
In Zambia, the Asikana Network is using Internet.org to educate the women of their country more about their legal rights.
E-commerce makes its way in
Amazon.com Inc.
(NASDAQ:AMZN) being one of the leading e-commerce platforms can benefit from the Internet.org consortium. Though, making profit from the developing countries like Kenya and Zambia won’t take them far but at least they can set a market awareness of their name and the benefits of getting access to such a platform. Asian competitors of Amazon like Alibaba
(HKG:1688) and Rakuten
(TYO:4755) can also incur same kind of benefits from this plan of getting to use internet free of cost.
The free of cost way to communicate: Whatsapp
Whatsapp is again another global phenomenon which has lifted communication to a different level altogether. Delivering a message to someone in particular or even to a group of people in few seconds is at people’s fingertips. Since many of the developing countries do not have the data services, they have to depend on the SMS service where they are charged for every message they send. Data services would bring Whatsapp to them and make communication easier and faster.
Whatsapp having a subscription-based business model faced tough competition in the market, initially. Facebook, by then, had already set its ground in the market. So, Whatsapp decided to just focus on its growth and not on the revenue it could incur in order to compete with Facebook. Gradually, Whatsapp gained the kind of fame it longed for. Whatsapp has already gained enough fame in South America and Asia. And finally,
Facebook bought Whatsapp at $19 billion.
As Zuckerberg proposes that his sole motto behind introducing Internet.org is to make internet more accessible to every human walking the earth’s surface and at the same time, control various apps and entire internet usage for the next 1 billion people who will get to access internet, Facebook needs to make internet more affordable and provide with incentives, cheaper infrastructure and easier accessibility. Hence, this would also make Whatsapp more accessible which will lead to faster and more instant way of communication. But the concern is that Zuckerberg never clearly said anything about making Whatsapp non-chargeable.
Other benefits of free internet
The moment internet becomes free; it will open the doors of globalization wider erasing the geographical boundaries on a virtual level. Apart from achieving betterment in the field of communication, cultural exchange will attain a new height with the help of internet. People can get ideas about other nations, their history and culture, etc. This also includes getting updates about the latest happenings, that is, news from all over the world. If Google becomes free, advertisements become free which is beneficial to the businesses. This will also make information on anything and everything under the sun accessible, starting from the address of a service provider to information on our solar system. This will also provide access to different kinds of books which one can read. Information on different scientific facts and experiments would enhance people’s knowledge. Free internet would also promote viewing of the images of almost everything on earth and beyond.
Thus, Zuckerbergs’s idea might have a futuristic vision of setting foot in the new markets and incurring profit from them, but it’s a long-term plan. If the introduction to internet can increase job opportunities and elevate standard of living of a good number of people suffering from poverty, then Zuckerberg’s idea can be considered. Betterment of the developing countries in totality should be his aim.
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