[kictanet] How Facebook Stumbled On Its Quest to Give Internet Away For Free

[Mwendwa Kivuva]

Of late, FB has come out strongly stating Freebasics is for the public
good rather than a product for market dominance and profitability. The
only problem with that is it presume the rest of humanity as not being
very clever. And that has brought them a lot of problems.

Philanthrocapitalism Isn’t a Great Marketing Term
Internet.org was born of growth initiatives, and it never lost that
DNA. From its launch through today, the program has never been
entirely about business or about altruism, but rather a convenient if
sometimes uncomfortable marriage of the two. Zuckerberg captured the
awkwardness beautifully in a quote published in the New York Times the
day of its Aug. 20 launch: “We’re focused on it more because we think
it’s something good for the world,” he said, “rather than something
that is going to be really amazing for our profits.”

Facebook employees consistently employ this tone, pushing the
altruistic aspects of Internet.org while tacitly acknowledging the
business benefits, when asked about the program’s business goals. “My
mission is to connect people,” Munish Seth, who heads Facebook’s
connectivity efforts in India, told the New York Times in a story
about Express Wi-Fi. “We hope they will connect to Facebook, but
that’s not the primary mission,” he said.

Playing up altruism while playing down profit motives soon became a
point of discontent among some people in the regions where
Internet.org operates. Facebook, they argue, is trying to win support
for a business effort by passing it off as something charitable.

“That’s how Facebook is positioning it every single day in its
advertising campaigns across India — that it’s a philanthropic venture
— whereas it’s not a nonprofit,” Nikhil Pahwa, co-founder of
Savetheinternet.in, a group opposed to Internet.org, told BuzzFeed
News in an interview. “It’s a business venture, through and through.”
At times, the efforts have bordered on brazen. Carolina Botero, CEO of
the Karisma Foundation, a Colombian digital rights organization, said
Internet.org has been positioned within Colombia as a public policy
initiative, getting endorsed as such by the country’s top government
officials. “You cannot present a marketing strategy as an important
public policy in a country,” she said. “If it’s going to be a market
strategy, then do it as a market strategy and we can deal with that.
But when you mix it with the public policies, it’s a whole world that
opens that is not good.”


A Facebook spokesperson said that while Colombian government services
were included in the country’s version of Free Basics, and Mark
Zuckerberg did indeed appear with Colombia’s president, Facebook
itself never pitched Internet.org as a public policy solution.

Asked if Facebook’s positioning of the program may have caused it
problems, Facebook’s Daniels rejected the notion. “I think it’s good
for Facebook and good for the world. And whether we should have led
with one or the other — or whether your perception is that we led with
one or the other — is neither here nor there,” he argued.
“The result of bringing more people online is good for the world,”
Daniels continued. “More ideas are shared. It’s good for the entire
internet ecosystem. Once people come online they discover and seek
more services that they can use online. And it is also good for
Facebook, there’s no question about that. When more people come
online, those are more potential Facebook users. I don’t think we’ve
shied away from the fact that this is going to be good for Facebook,
but I also don’t think that we should be shying away from the fact
that it’s going to be good for the world as well, to bring more people
online.”

On 26/01/2016, Mwendwa Kivuva <Kivuva at transworldafrica.com> wrote:
> Thanks Nanjira.
>
> At least now we have a techsavy CS, probably we will see some positive
> change in this debate that has dragged for years in this list.
>
> Regards
>
> On 26/01/2016, Nanjira Sambuli via kictanet
> <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>> For those still keen on this issue. Goes back to acquisitions of Snaptu
>> and
>> Onavo. Very interesting.
>>
>> Memorable quote:
>>
>> ""You cannot present a marketing strategy as an important public policy in
>> a
>> country. If it's going to be a market strategy, then do it as a market
>> strategy and we can deal with that. But when you mix it with the public
>> policies, it's a whole world that opens that is not good."
>>
>> What shall it be, for Kenya? Btw, technology neutrality is listed as a
>> principle in the National Broadband Strategy...
>>
>> http://www.buzzfeed.com/alexkantrowitz/how-facebooks-plan-to-give-the-world-free-mobile-internet-we#.kcxE7w225
>>
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>> Nanjira.
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone.
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>
>
> --
> ______________________
> Mwendwa Kivuva, Nairobi, Kenya
> twitter.com/lordmwesh
>
> The best athletes never started as the best athletes.
> "You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take." - Wayne Gretzky.
> I will persist until I succeed - Og Mandino.
>


-- 
______________________
Mwendwa Kivuva, Nairobi, Kenya
twitter.com/lordmwesh

The best athletes never started as the best athletes.
"You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take." - Wayne Gretzky.
I will persist until I succeed - Og Mandino.