back to article 1bn down, 6bn to go: Zuck to grow Facebook by touting 'free internet onramp' for the poor

Mark Zuckerberg has used his keynote address at this year's Mobile World Congress to expound on his rough plan to expand basic internet services to all humanity as a human right, and then sell them something on the back of them. He told the Barcelona audience that Internet.org – a partnership between Facebook and mobile …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's funny people use messaging apps...

    ... when they could use email for the same task, being able to write longer messages, while using a service which is interoperable among *billions* of users with no "app lock-in".

    But the teenagers grown up with SMS because they couldn't use a computer looks unable to get past them - everything else is too complex for them.

    1. Dave 126

      Re: It's funny people use messaging apps...

      It's not that email is 'too complex' for teenagers, but that it is less efficient (in terms of user interaction) for the sort of messages that people use What'sApp for.

      WhatsApp presents a better interface than (the default) email client on Android for exchanging a few quick messages back and forth. If you were to conduct a time and motion study, you'd find it a better tool for the job. You don't need click on 'expand all', for starters.

      In addition, SnapChat notifcations result in a different noise and notification-LED colour to emails, so you know that it a message written for you, from someone you know well enough to have your telephone number, and probably relates to something that is happening soon. An incoming email could be from work, SPAM, marketing, or something else that doesn't need your attention.

      The lock-in is small compared to some other services, since your friends' unique identifiers - their mobile telephone numbers - is independent of SnapChat. Also, people don't tend to go back over old messages, since it tends to be used for 'conversations' about what time to meet up that afternoon, i.e the messages are of no interest or value six months later.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    I only have one thing to say to Mark Zuckerberg...

    Fark you, and the horse you rode in on !

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I only have one thing to say to Mark Zuckerberg...

      "Fark you, and the horse you rode in on !"

      Sorry, while I agree with your sentiment, I do draw the line with respect to fscking the horse.

      That must be a British thing... (Wasn't there a queen who was overly fond of her horses?)

      1. dogged

        Re: I only have one thing to say to Mark Zuckerberg...

        That was a) not true b) Catherine the Great and c) Russia.

        But nice try, AC.

  3. Mark 85

    Hmm... billions? Billions - 1

    Count me out.

    1. dogged

      Re: Hmm... billions? Billions - 1

      Agreed. Although this bit amused me -

      "Last year the average Facebook user downloaded 14MB of data a day from the social network, but the company has cut that to 2MB this year"

      By plastering so many ads all over it that people now install AdBlock and download less crap.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Selfies

    of starving emerging market facebookers, just what they need. Man can't live on data alone.

    1. Gray Ham Bronze badge

      Re: Selfies

      Indeed yes. Although extending internet access to everyone may be a laudable aim, I can't help feeling that making money out of people who are surviving on a couple of dollars a day may be harder than MZ is anticipating. That's if they even have access to a computer (and reliable electricity).

    2. Dave 126

      Re: Selfies

      > Man can't live on data alone.

      No, but data means that a farmer can find out what the market price for his produce is, and so not get ripped-off by middlemen.

      Basic data services - based on WAP or SMS - have already made a big difference to the lives of people in the developing world. Some people just have their own SIM, and share a phone with other people in their community.

      For sure we are data-fat in the developed world, so maybe we forget that a little data can go a long way.

      1. dogged

        Re: Selfies

        > No, but data means that a farmer can find out what the market price for his produce is, and so not get ripped-off by middlemen.

        You're out of your fucking tree. Get help.

        For anyone less clearly insane than this specimen, no it can't. The farmer takes the crop to the nearest village or whatever and sells it. He's not going to trade it to the locals (except in barter) because they're just as broke as he is. He's not going to ship it to a city because the thing about being a farmer is that you need to be farming on your farm every single day (this is why there are no orthodox Jewish farmers) so to do that would actually badly damage his livelihood, such as it is.

        He will sell it to the middlemen who show up in the village to buy and he'll take the price they're paying because they are the only buyers and theirs is the only price.

        They then gouge the consumer.

        For an example of this principle in action, buy some milk at your local supermarket.

        1. dogged
          Coat

          Re: Selfies

          Oh wait, is this the thread where we all agree that being able to be advertized at by Google and Facebook is somehow superior to actual food and health?

          Sorry, didn't realize. I'll get my coat.

        2. Arnold Lieberman

          @dogged

          The reason why there may be little to no orthodox Jewish farmers outside of Israel is probably more to do with the time back in the day when Jews were prohibited from owning land.

          If I were a rich man...

          1. dogged

            @arnold

            Absolutely, although I was actually referring to the Shabbat requirements which result in unmilked, unfed animals and thus are not exactly friendly toward farming.

            Unless you have your slaves do it (while keeping strictly to the regulation in Leviticus, of course).

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Selfies

          > The farmer takes the crop to the nearest village or whatever and sells it. He's not going to trade it to the locals (except in barter) because they're just as broke as he is. He's not going to ship it to a city because the thing about being a farmer is that you need to be farming on your farm every single day (this is why there are no orthodox Jewish farmers) so to do that would actually badly damage his livelihood, such as it is.

          As it happens both my mum and my wife grew up in little villages in farmer families in 2nd/3rd world countries. They both report the work is incredibly hard but the good thing is that you occasionally do get days where you don't have to do much and stuff sort of just grows. They also used this time, and I specifically remember an example my mom told me in great detail about, where they would after a harvest take the livestock they wanted to sell as well as crops etc to a city so far away that they'd have to walk a whole day, sell it the next day, and spend another day to return. I imagine since there wasn't a single person farming, those remaining at home kept feeding the remaining animals and took care of whatever else needed taking care of if anything. So I'm not sure why you feel you've got to be all condescending here when you don't even seem to be right.

          1. dogged

            Re: Selfies

            > They both report the work is incredibly hard but the good thing is that you occasionally do get days where you don't have to do much and stuff sort of just grows

            I grew up on a dairy farm in the UK.

            There are exactly zero days when you don't work.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Selfies

              Dave 126>>> No, but data means that a farmer can find out what the market price for his produce is, and so not get ripped-off by middlemen. [...] Basic data services - based on WAP or SMS - have already made a big difference to the lives of people in the developing world.

              dogged> You're out of your fucking tree. Get help. [...] I grew up on a dairy farm in the UK.

              I can't help but feel you were not being particularly fair seeing that Dave 126 talked about farmers in the developing world selling any kind of produce while your experience is restricted to a dairy farm in the UK.

              Perhaps you've got other good reasons to disbelieve the claim (which I seem to have come across before) that data services have been helpful for farmers in the developing world in getting a better price but surely it's not because you know for sure that every single person on every farm in the world has to work every single day and cannot spend some time to check prices and where worthwhile sell to those who offer a better price?

  5. Ketlan
    WTF?

    Do fuck off, Zuckerberg

    "After Facebook reached this milestone of connecting a billion people, we took a step back and said, 'well, what problem can we help solve next?'"

    And what 'problem', precisely, has been solved by Facebook connecting a billion people, beyond the presumed shortage of amusing (cough) cat pictures that existed before Facebook arrived on the scene. As far as I can see, Zuckerberg has got richer than Midas and a billion people can now talk crap at each other online rather than face to face or on the phone. Is that it? FFS.

    1. The First Dave

      Re: Do fuck off, Zuckerberg

      I kind of lost the plot at the whole 1,000 times more efficient bit

  6. Mikel

    How many WiFi blimps

    How many WiFi blimps and public access points would $19B buy?

    1. dogged

      Re: How many WiFi blimps

      How many malaria cures or polio vaccinations?

  7. Gene Cash Silver badge

    The '90s called

    And they want their "internet superhighway" slogan back.

  8. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "Our vision isn’t to connect a seventh of the world's it's to connect everyone"

    Here, let me correct that for you :

    Our vision isn’t to track a seventh of the world, it's to track everyone and sell their personal details better than Google.

    TFTFY

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