BENGALURU: Facebook reported 43.8 per cent growth in revenue for the year ended 31 December, 2015 (FY-2015, current year) at $17,928 million as compared to $12,466 million in FY-2014. The company’s net income attributable to common Class A and Class B stockholders increased 25.4 per cent to $3,669 million (20.5 per cent margin) as compared to $2,925 million (23.5 per cent margin). For the quarter ended 31 December, 2015 (Q4-2105, current quarter), revenue increased 51.7 per cent YoY to $5,841 million as compared to $3,851 million, while net income attributable to common Class A and Class B stockholders more than doubled (up 2.23 times) YoY to $1,555 million (26.6 per cent margin) as compared to $696 million (18.1 per cent margin).
“2015 was a great year for Facebook. Our community continued to grow and our business is thriving,” said Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “We continue to invest in better serving our community, building our business, and connecting the world.”
Approximately 95.3 per cent of Facebook’s revenue came from advertising in the current year as compared to 92.2 per cent in FY-2014, while the rest came from Payments and Other Fees. Please refer to Fig A below for revenue breakup in Advertising and Payments & Other Fees.
A major portion of Facebook’s advertising revenue (almost 50 per cent) comes from the US and Canada (US-Can), followed by Europe (Eur, about 25 per cent). The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region contributes about 15 per cent, while the Rest of the World (ROW) about 10 per cent. Please refer to Fig 2 below for advertising revenue break-up by user geography.
Facebook’s Daily Active Users (DAU) in Q4-2015 increased 16.6 per cent YoY to 1038 million from 890 million and increased 3.1 per cent QoQ from 1007 million. The number of Mobile DAUs in the current quarter increased 25.4 per cent YoY to 934 million from 745 million and increased 4.5 per cent QoQ from 894 million.
Please refer to Fig 3 below. Facebook has the highest number of Daily Active Users (DAU) from ROW followed by APAC , Eur and US-Can respectively in terms of DAU. In other words, US-Canada and Europe’s DAUs, which amount to about 26 per cent, contribute about 75 per cent of Facebook’s advertising revenue, and the ROW and APac’s DAUs contribute about 25 per cent, reflecting higher ARPUs from US-Can, followed by Eur, APac and ROW in descending order.
The curve B in Fig 3 below signifies the ratio of DAUs to Monthly Average Users (MAU), while curve A indicates the percentage of Mobile DAUs to DAUs.
BENGALURU: Facebook reported 43.8 per cent growth in revenue for the year ended 31 December, 2015 (FY-2015, current year) at $17,928 million as compared to $12,466 million in FY-2014. The company’s net income attributable to common Class A and Class B stockholders increased 25.4 per cent to $3,669 million (20.5 per cent margin) as compared to $2,925 million (23.5 per cent margin). For the quarter ended 31 December, 2015 (Q4-2105, current quarter), revenue increased 51.7 per cent YoY to $5,841 million as compared to $3,851 million, while net income attributable to common Class A and Class B stockholders more than doubled (up 2.23 times) YoY to $1,555 million (26.6 per cent margin) as compared to $696 million (18.1 per cent margin).
“2015 was a great year for Facebook. Our community continued to grow and our business is thriving,” said Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “We continue to invest in better serving our community, building our business, and connecting the world.”
Approximately 95.3 per cent of Facebook’s revenue came from advertising in the current year as compared to 92.2 per cent in FY-2014, while the rest came from Payments and Other Fees. Please refer to Fig A below for revenue breakup in Advertising and Payments & Other Fees.
A major portion of Facebook’s advertising revenue (almost 50 per cent) comes from the US and Canada (US-Can), followed by Europe (Eur, about 25 per cent). The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region contributes about 15 per cent, while the Rest of the World (ROW) about 10 per cent. Please refer to Fig 2 below for advertising revenue break-up by user geography.
Facebook’s Daily Active Users (DAU) in Q4-2015 increased 16.6 per cent YoY to 1038 million from 890 million and increased 3.1 per cent QoQ from 1007 million. The number of Mobile DAUs in the current quarter increased 25.4 per cent YoY to 934 million from 745 million and increased 4.5 per cent QoQ from 894 million.
Please refer to Fig 3 below. Facebook has the highest number of Daily Active Users (DAU) from ROW followed by APAC , Eur and US-Can respectively in terms of DAU. In other words, US-Canada and Europe’s DAUs, which amount to about 26 per cent, contribute about 75 per cent of Facebook’s advertising revenue, and the ROW and APac’s DAUs contribute about 25 per cent, reflecting higher ARPUs from US-Can, followed by Eur, APac and ROW in descending order.
The curve B in Fig 3 below signifies the ratio of DAUs to Monthly Average Users (MAU), while curve A indicates the percentage of Mobile DAUs to DAUs.
MUMBAI: Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is on a mission – digital equality in the world. His means to achieve it? Internet.org that has been rechristened as ‘Free Basics’ in India. What’s standing in his way? The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
The prolonged debate over net neutrality and whether Free Basic will be detrimental to it has not only led to the establishment of online communities such as savetheinternet and online celebrities like All India Bakchod (AIB) to release a three part series on the subject, but also caught the government body’s attention. TRAI has asked Facebook’s only partner in the project, Reliance Communications to cease all work on Free Basics till it takes a call on the fairness of operators placing prices on certain online content and services.
A move that only egged on Facebook further and that’s when it came up with an extensive online campaign that asked users to sign a petition addressed to TRAI in support of Free Basics.
To further abate the growing skepticism over the service amongst Indian netizens, the social media giant also went offline with their advertising campaign. From full page advertisements in leading newspapers to billboards across the country’s metros, Facebook has made its presence felt and motive clear: it will leave no stones unturned to make Free Basics a reality.
The idea behind the campaign was to highlight the need for Free Basics in India, especially for the underprivileged.
“Hundreds of millions of people in India use the Internet every day and understand the benefits it can bring. This campaign gives people the opportunity to support digital equality in India. It lets people speak in support of the one billion people in India who remain unconnected, and lets them participate in the public debate that is being held by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on differential pricing for data services. And it gives them the opportunity to support Free Basics, which is proven to bring more people online and accelerate full internet adoption,” a Facebook spokesperson tells Indiantelevision.com.
The campaign did gain ground and as per a survey commissioned by Facebook, overall, 86 per cent of respondents support Free Basics when presented with arguments for and against the service
conducted by David Binder Research in partnership with India’s Hansa Research, the survey was sampled from 3000 people in India.
“At the heart of the results was awareness of the importance of the Internet in shaping India’s future. A majority (65 per cent) of Indians agreed with the statement that, ‘a connected India is a stronger India and connecting more people makes India stronger, more informed, and more competitive in the world’ and more than half support the Digital India initiative,” the report states.
Nevertheless, questions were raised on whether Free Basics truly adheres to what the advertisement campaign claims — internet for all.
In fact, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) received several complaints and petitions from netizens across the country stating that the advertisements were insensitive and only painted a one dimensional picture about rural India and its basic needs. Several argue that it is a very simplistic way to sell their product projecting Free Basics as some sort of a magic wand that waves away underprivileged India’s problems.
While TRAI still awaits an official response from Facebook over the credibility of their campaign, Zuckerberg’s op-ed in one of India’s leading daily clearly addresses the subject.
“More than 35 operators have launched Free Basics and 15 million people have come online. And half the people who use Free Basics to go online for the first time pay to access the full internet within 30 days. If we accept that everyone deserves access to the internet, then we must surely support free basic internet services. That’s why more than 30 countries have recognised Free Basics as a program consistent with net neutrality and good for consumers. Who could possibly be against this? Surprisingly, over the last year there’s been a big debate about this in India,” writes Zuckerberg,” adding, “Instead of wanting to give people access to some basic internet services for free, critics of the program continue to spread false claims – even if that means leaving behind a billion people.”
One would argue that Zuckerberg is almost suggesting that India accepts Free Basics without any questions asked as it at least solves its problem of internet for all. The question of net neutrality is secondary to a developing country.
Citing an example of a farmer in India, Zuckerberg highlights the power of internet in connecting India. “A few months ago I learned about a farmer in Maharashtra called Ganesh. Last year Ganesh started using Free Basics. He found weather information to prepare for monsoon season. He looked up commodity prices to get better deals. Now Ganesh is investing in new crops and livestock.”
What is interesting to note here is that the example is in line with their campaign that speaks of rural India urging everyone to focus on immediate advantages of free internet for all.
Regarding its long term effect on net neutrality and Facebook’s advantage over other players in market, the CEO argues, “There is no advantage because the platform is open to all developers. Facebook does not receive or give any money to developers, telcos or anyone else for their participation in Free Basics, nor does Facebook generate any revenue from the version of Facebook within Free Basics as there are no ads in it. Our connectivity efforts have brought 15 million new people online and is consistent with net neutrality because the actual results from the program prove it serves as a bridge to the full internet for people, and is non-discriminatory.”
And while Zuckerberg rallies for Free Basics, even as he takes his paternity leave, a Reliance Mobiles’ TVC on ‘New Ways To Facebook’ has surfaced, adding an interesting angle to their partnership, and its impending impact on free competition in the market.
Promising free access to Facebook even on offline mode through their specially designed ‘Go To Facebook’ button, which is available exclusively to Reliance Mobile users, the mass media campaign might not go down well with the ‘save the internet’ crusaders.
Whether this will dent the progress Free Basics has had in convincing netizens in favour of it, or Facebook’s mission of Free Basics will be possible, one thing is for sure, it’s certainly made the space more exciting and started many a conversations.
MUMBAI: The world was struck with horror as Paris bled under the terror attacks that paralysed the city early morning on November 14.
As news of the multiple attacks in six key places in the city spread through France and the world, family and friends of those present in the city couldn’t help but panic about the wellbeing of their loved ones. The attacks left 127 dead and over 200 injured including 99 that have been critically injured (as per the available statistics at the time of filing of this report)
The situation further intensified as President Holland declared a state of emergency in France, closing its borders. Like every major disaster, be it natural or manmade, chaos ensued.
Facebook did its part in abating some of the confusion with its Safety Check option.
Thousands of users took to the application to send their safety message out to the world by checking ‘Safe Now’ on their profile pages.
As per the data Facebook shared with Indiantelevision.com, 4.1 million Facebook users marked themselves safe using the tool, which notified 360 million users of their friends’ safety since the service was activated.
“We’ve activated Safety Check, so if you’re in Paris you can mark yourself safe or check on your friends and family,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg later posted on the social media earlier on 14 November, while condemning the act of violence in Paris.
According to Facebook spokesperson, 78 million people have had over 183 million Facebook interactions related to the attacks so far.
Safety Check isn’t a new offering from the tech giant. It was launched in 2011 after the devastating Tsunami had hit Japan and surrounding areas. The option was also widely used after the earthquake in Nepal earlier this year.
Interestingly this is the first time Facebook has activated the service for anything other than natural disaster.
Explaining the reasoning behind the move, Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook, “Many people have rightfully asked why we turned on Safety Check for Paris but not for bombings in Beirut and other places. Until yesterday, our policy was only to activate Safety Check for natural disasters. We just changed this and now plan to activate Safety Check for more human disasters going forward as well.”
Facebook is also allowing users to change their profile pictures in the blue, white and red shades of the French national flag in support of France and the people of Paris.
BENGALURU: Social media major Facebook Inc reported a 40.5 per cent hike in YoY revenue to $4.5 billion in the quarter ended 30 September, 2015 (Q3-2015) as compared to the $3.2 billion in the corresponding quarter of last year.
The company’s non-GAAP net income rose 41.7 per cent YoY to $1.6 billion (36.2 per cent margin) in the current quarter as compared to $1.14 billion (35.9 per cent margin) in Q3-2014. Facebook’s GAAP income increased 11.2 per cent to $896 million in the current quarter as compared to $806 million in Q3-2014.
“We had a good quarter and got a lot done,” said Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “We’re focused on innovating and investing for the long term to serve our community and connect the entire world.”
Operational highlights
Daily active users (DAUs) – DAUs were 1.01 billion on average for September 2015, an increase of 17 per cent YoY
Mobile DAUs – Mobile DAUs were 894 million on average for September 2015, an increase of 27 per cent YoY.
Monthly active users (MAUs) – MAUs were 1.55 billion as of 30 September, 2015, an increase of 14 per cent YoY.
Mobile MAUs – Mobile MAUs were 1.39 billion as of 30 September, 2015, an increase of 23 per cent YoY.
Financial highlights
Growth in revenue was driven by a 45.4 per cent growth in Advertising revenue to $4.29 billion in the current quarter as compared to the $2.59 billion in Q2-2014.
Mobile advertising revenue – Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 78 per cent of advertising revenue for Q3-2015 2015, up from 66 per cent of advertising revenue in Q3-2014.
Capital expenditures – Capital expenditures for Q3-2015 were $780 million.
Cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities – Cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities were $15.83 billion at the end of Q3-2015.
Free cash flow – Free cash flow for Q3-2015 was $1.41 billion.
Zuckerberg also took to his Facebook page to say, “Our community now has more than 1.55 billion people, including more than 1 billion people active every day. Through Internet.org, more than 15 million people now have access to the opportunities of the Internet who didn’t before.”
“In the last three months, we’ve also announced our first aircraft to beam down internet access, our first satellite launch to deliver connectivity, an AI-powered digital assistant and our first Oculus virtual reality consumer release. Our community has a lot to be proud of. Thank you for being a part of our community, and for helping to connect the world,” he added.
MUMBAI: Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has set his sights on the Indian market in a big way, which according to him is one of the key markets for the social networking company.
In his second visit this year to the country, the young entrepreneur visited the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, where close to 900 students attended the Question & Answer session.
Zuckerberg addressed issues such as Net Neutrality, internet access as well as Facebook’s initiatives to invest in India.
Speaking at the event, Zuckerberg said that his mission was to connect everyone in India to the internet.
According to a UK based consultancy We Are Social and Facebook India, of the 1.49 billion people who check Facebook at least once a month, more than 130 million are in India. It is more than anywhere outside the US and the number has been rising in recent years.Facebook had 118 million users in 2014 as compared to a year earlier, which was 93 million.
Zuckerberg explained that Facebook’s initiative Internet.org has nothing insidious but aims to provide connectivity for access to education, health care and financial services to millions of Indians. Internet.org was launched in 2013 for a global effort to provide web access to unconnected users in the developing nations.
Speaking on the investment on Artificial Intelligence Systems, Zuckerberg said, “AI is really exciting. We will be able to see smarter computers being built. With AI, it’s going to be less about products and making the existing ones smarter. We are working on a project where AI can describe photos to blind people. Second example, right now the best way to let people know you are safe in terms of a crisis is by yourself or through your friends. In the future maybe satellites and other technologies can help with this.”
He said that almost three million people said they were safe by using Facebook’s safety-check feature after the recent earthquake in Afghanistan. “When there’s a disaster all you want to know if your loved ones are safe,” he said.
He further spoke on Net Neutrality saying, “Most of the people pushing for net-neutrality already have access to Internet. But those who aren’t, can’t sign an online petition for an increase in the Internet. We all have a moral responsibility to look out for those who don’t have access and make sure the rules don’t get twisted to hurt those who don’t have a voice.”
Later, taking to his Facebook page, he posted an update about the Townhall Q&A in Delhi saying, “We just wrapped up our Townhall Q&A in Delhi! People asked great questions about how we can connect everyone in India to the internet, how we provide everyone with a great education and how to build a strong company. I really appreciate these Q&AS. Hearing what you care about makes Facebook better. Thanks to everyone who asked a question or tuned in!”
Over the past week in India, there has been a lot written about Internet.org and net neutrality. I’d like to share my position on these topics here for everyone to see.
First, I’ll share a quick story. Last year I visited Chandauli, a small village in northern India that had just been connected to the internet.
In a classroom in the village, I had the chance to talk to a group of students who were learning to use the internet. It was an incredible experience to think that right there in that room might be a student with a big idea that could change the world — and now they could actually make that happen through the internet.
The internet is one of the most powerful tools for economic and social progress. It gives people access to jobs, knowledge and opportunities. It gives voice to the voiceless in our society, and it connects people with vital resources for health and education.
I believe everyone in the world deserves access to these opportunities.
In many countries, however, there are big social and economic obstacles to connectivity. The internet isn’t affordable to everyone, and in many places awareness of its value remains low. Women and the poor are most likely to be excluded and further disempowered by lack of connectivity.
This is why we created Internet.org, our effort to connect the whole world. By partnering with mobile operators and governments in different countries, Internet.org offers free access in local languages to basic internet services in areas like jobs, health, education and messaging.Internet.org lowers the cost of accessing the internet and raises the awareness of the internet’s value. It helps include everyone in the world’s opportunities.
We’ve made some great progress, and already more than 800 million people in 9 countries can now access free basic services throughInternet.org. In India, we’ve already rolled out free basic services on the Reliance network to millions of people in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala and Telangana. And we just launched in Indonesia on the Indosat network today.
We’re proud of this progress. But some people have criticized the concept of zero-rating that allows Internet.org to deliver free basic internet services, saying that offering some services for free goes against the spirit of net neutrality. I strongly disagree with this.
We fully support net neutrality. We want to keep the internet open. Net neutrality ensures network operators don’t discriminate by limiting access to services you want to use. It’s an essential part of the open internet, and we are fully committed to it.
But net neutrality is not in conflict with working to get more people connected. These two principles — universal connectivity and net neutrality — can and must coexist.
To give more people access to the internet, it is useful to offer some service for free. If someone can’t afford to pay for connectivity, it is always better to have some access than none at all.
Internet.org doesn’t block or throttle any other services or create fast lanes — and it never will. We’re open for all mobile operators and we’re not stopping anyone from joining. We want as many internet providers to join so as many people as possible can be connected.
Arguments about net neutrality shouldn’t be used to prevent the most disadvantaged people in society from gaining access or to deprive people of opportunity. Eliminating programs that bring more people online won’t increase social inclusion or close the digital divide. It will only deprive all of us of the ideas and contributions of the two thirds of the world who are not connected.
Every person in the world deserves access to the opportunities the internet provides. And we can all benefit from the perspectives, creativity and talent of the people not yet connected.
We have a historic opportunity to connect billions of more people worldwide for the first time. We should work together to make that happen now.
DISCLAIMER: The author of this article is Facebook Chairman and CEO. The article has been sourced from Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page. The views expressed here are purely personal views of the author and Indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to them.
MUMBAI: Media baron 21st Century Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch along with his son and CEO of the company James Murdoch, will host Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York.
The Murdochs – Modi rendezvous will also be attended by senior executives from Fox including News Corp CEO Robert Thomson, Star India CEO Uday Shankar and a selective group of peers from media and entertainment companies.
Known for his powerful international image and charismatic personality, Modi is expected to lay solid ground for further propagation of brand India through this high profile gathering of world media heads.
It may be recalled that earlier in March, the media world was taken in a frenzy when 21st Century Fox CEO (then COO) James Murdoch along with Shankar met Modi in Delhi.
The Murdochs hosting Modi doesn’t come as a surprise given the important role Star India is playing in Fox’s revenues and reach internationally. As was reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, global brokerage company Morgan Stanley valued Star India at $11.2 billion earlier this year. Following the report, Fox chief financial officer John Nallen was also heard pitching high hopes on Star India for the global network’s growth. “The top opportunity continues to be international, led by Star. Star clearly is going to lead a lot of our international growth,” he had said.
Nallen had further added that the parent company expects Star India’s growth to contribute $500 million by 2018.
This indicates how the Murdochs have advocated higher foreign direct investment (FDI) ceilings in India’s media industry and are keen to expand their presence in the country. A case in point is Star India’s acquisition of Maa TV’s broadcast assets earlier this year.
During his US trip, Modi will also visit Silicon Valley giant Facebook followed by a meeting with Google’s Indian born CEO Sundar Pichai, and Apple CEO Tim Cook.
“I’m excited to announce that Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India will be visiting Facebook HQ later this month for a Townhall Q&A,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who had earlier sent an open invitation to the Indian Prime Minister to visit Facebook’s headquarters. “Prime Minister Modi and I will discuss how communities can work together to address social and economic challenges…. The event will be on Sunday, September 27 at 9:30 a.m. pacific time,” he later added to the post.
Modi too took to Facebook to share his excitement of visiting the tech giant’s HQ, and to chalk out the agenda for the meeting. “I thank Mr. Mark Zuckerberg for the invite to visit the Facebook HQ. The interaction will cover a wide range of issues and will surely be a memorable one.”
On Sunday, Modi added, “I will also see some recent technological innovations at the Google (Alphabet) campus and Tesla Motors.”
His final post – “It would be after a gap of almost 33 years that an Indian PM would be visiting the west coast — the home of start-ups, innovation and technology,” – rightly reflects the overall expectations India media has from his visit to the US.
BENGALURU: The Mark Zuckerberg led Facebook, Inc (Facebook) reported a 43 per cent increase in advertisement revenue in the quarter ended 30 June, 2015 (Q2-2015) at $3287 million (94.7 per cent of Total Revenue or TR) as compared to the $2676 million (92 per cent of TR) in Q2-2014 and a 15.3 per cent increase as compared to the $4420 million (93.6 per cent of TR) in Q1-2015. As is obvious, advertising revenue, which in any case formed the biggest component of TR is increasing its share of TR even more. Facebook offered fresh evidence of its allure to deep-pocketed big brands, as it and Google Inc., increasingly take the lion’s share of the fast-growing mobile advertising market says a Wall Street Journal report. (http://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-revenue-rises-39-1438200350). Please refer to Fig A below.
TR in the current quarter improved by 38.9 per cent to $4042 million as compared to the $2910 million in the corresponding year ago quarter and increased 14 per cent as compared to the $3546 million in Q1-2015, which had seen q-o-q revenues dip.
A digression here – over the past few years, Facebook revenues (led by Ad revenue) trend to dip in the first quarter of the year. This could potentially lead to advertisers asking for, and with a higher chance of Facebook accepting/offering discounts in the first quarter of each year.
For the six month period ended 30 June, 2015 (6M-2015, YTD), TR increased 40.2 per cent to $7586 million as compared to the $5412 million in 6M-2015. Ad revenue in 6M-2015 was up 45 per cent to $7147 million (94.2 per cent of TR) as compared to the $4941 million (91.3 per cent of TR) in the corresponding year ago period.
Mobile Ad revenue share has been increasing in Facebook’s Ad and TR. Mobile Ad revenue represented approximately 76 per cent of advertising revenue for Q2-2015, up from approximately 62 per cent of advertising revenue in Q2-2014 and approximately 73 per cent in the immediate trailing quarter. Please refer to Fig B below.
User Data
Daily active users (DAUs) – DAUs were 96.8 million on average for June 2015, an increase of 17 per cent y-o-y.
Mobile DAUs – Mobile DAUs were 84.4 million on average for June 2015, an increase of 29 per cent y-o-y.
Monthly active users (MAUs) – MAUs were 1.49 billion as of 30 June, 2015, an increase of 13 per cent y-o-y.
Mobile MAUs – Mobile MAUs were 1.31 billion as of 30 June, 2015, an increase of 23 per cent y-o-y.
“This was another strong quarter for our community,” said Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “Engagement across our family of apps keeps growing, and we remain focused on improving the quality of our services. Users now spend more than 46 minutes a day on average on Facebook and its other properties, including Facebook Messenger and photo-sharing app Instagram “.
The company’s income however did not keep up with the growth in revenue. Operating Income declined 8.4 per cent to $1273 million (31.5 per cent margin) as compared to the $1390 million (47.8 per cent margin) in Q2-2014, but improved 36.34 per cent q-o-q from $933 million (26.3 per cent margin) in the immediate trailing quarter.
Net income in the current quarter also declined 9.1 per cent to $719 million (17.8 per cent) as compared to the $791 million (27.2 per cent margin) in Q2-2014, but improved by 40.4 per cent as compared to the $512 million in the immediate trailing quarter. Please refer to Fig C below.
Over the past week in India, there has been a lot written about Internet.org and net neutrality. I’d like to share my position on these topics here for everyone to see.
First, I’ll share a quick story. Last year I visited Chandauli, a small village in northern India that had just been connected to the internet.
In a classroom in the village, I had the chance to talk to a group of students who were learning to use the internet. It was an incredible experience to think that right there in that room might be a student with a big idea that could change the world — and now they could actually make that happen through the internet.
The internet is one of the most powerful tools for economic and social progress. It gives people access to jobs, knowledge and opportunities. It gives voice to the voiceless in our society, and it connects people with vital resources for health and education.
I believe everyone in the world deserves access to these opportunities.
In many countries, however, there are big social and economic obstacles to connectivity. The internet isn’t affordable to everyone, and in many places awareness of its value remains low. Women and the poor are most likely to be excluded and further disempowered by lack of connectivity.
This is why we created Internet.org, our effort to connect the whole world. By partnering with mobile operators and governments in different countries, Internet.org offers free access in local languages to basic internet services in areas like jobs, health, education and messaging. Internet.org lowers the cost of accessing the internet and raises the awareness of the internet’s value. It helps include everyone in the world’s opportunities.
We’ve made some great progress, and already more than 800 million people in 9 countries can now access free basic services through Internet.org. In India, we’ve already rolled out free basic services on the Reliance network to millions of people in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala and Telangana. And we just launched in Indonesia on the Indosat network today.
We’re proud of this progress. But some people have criticized the concept of zero-rating that allows Internet.org to deliver free basic internet services, saying that offering some services for free goes against the spirit of net neutrality. I strongly disagree with this.
We fully support net neutrality. We want to keep the internet open. Net neutrality ensures network operators don’t discriminate by limiting access to services you want to use. It’s an essential part of the open internet, and we are fully committed to it.
But net neutrality is not in conflict with working to get more people connected. These two principles — universal connectivity and net neutrality — can and must coexist.
To give more people access to the internet, it is useful to offer some service for free. If someone can’t afford to pay for connectivity, it is always better to have some access than none at all.
Internet.org doesn’t block or throttle any other services or create fast lanes — and it never will. We’re open for all mobile operators and we’re not stopping anyone from joining. We want as many internet providers to join so as many people as possible can be connected.
Arguments about net neutrality shouldn’t be used to prevent the most disadvantaged people in society from gaining access or to deprive people of opportunity. Eliminating programs that bring more people online won’t increase social inclusion or close the digital divide. It will only deprive all of us of the ideas and contributions of the two thirds of the world who are not connected.
Every person in the world deserves access to the opportunities the internet provides. And we can all benefit from the perspectives, creativity and talent of the people not yet connected.
We have a historic opportunity to connect billions of more people worldwide for the first time. We should work together to make that happen now.
(Mark Zuckerberg is the founder of Facebook.com. This article was first published on Mark Zuckerberg’s official Facebook page. The views expressed here are that of the writer and Indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to them.)
