Mark Zuckerberg 'not sure' about Internet.org advertising
Advertising is not a “near term” priority for Facebook’s Internet.org initiative to get more people online in the developing world, according to chief executiveMark Zuckerberg.
Facebook launched the scheme in 2013 with fellow technology firms including Samsung, Qualcomm, Ericsson and Nokia as its effort to connect “the next few billion people” to the internet.
The social network has since worked with mobile operators in countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, Zambia and Kenya to provide free access to basic internet services from their mobile phones.
This being Facebook, though, its motivations have been frequently questioned – as they have been for Google in its separate push to get people online in countries where internet access is currently limited.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Zuckerberg denied that growing his company’s advertising business is on the Internet.org agenda for now.
“I’m not sure it’s a big part of the solution in the near term, to be honest. What we need to do is work out a model with operators and governments and local partners that is profitable for them so we can continue growing the Internet,” he said.
According to Zuckerberg, the Internet.org model is based around persuading telecoms firms to invest in internet infrastructure and buy in to Facebook’s vision of free basic services, which in turn will persuade more people to start paying for mobile data plans once they’re online.
“Originally, we thought that maybe working with other kinds of partners would be important, but at this point, we think we have a sustainable model that is working in multiple countries now, and there’s a lot of momentum and a lot of countries coming online now,” said Zuckerberg, although he admitted advertising may be a factor in the longer term.
“In a lot of these countries, there isn’t a very big ad market yet. So it’s not that we won’t do it eventually, but for right now and our business, the main thing that we need to continue to do is focus on the quality of the ads,” he said.
“And doing that in the developed world – in the U.S. and Europe and Asia and a lot of places that are actually going to be the driver of our own profitability and revenue – not trying to make ad markets out of countries that are just coming online.”
In the interview, Zuckerberg said that the biggest challenge for Internet.org is not people being unable to get online or unable to afford it, but rather that “they don’t know what they would want to use the Internet for”.
He added that while Facebook and Google’s initiatives are separate, the two companies talk regularly about how they can work together: for example, by adding Google as one of the services in the Internet.org app in Zambia.
Zuckerberg also defended Internet.org fromcriticisms voiced by former Microsoft boss (and now philanthropist) Bill Gates of Google’s Project Loon initiative: that in many countries, better healthcare is a more urgent need than better internet access.
“The reality is that it’s not an either-or. People need to be healthy and be able to have the Internet as a backbone to connect them to the whole economy. The Internet creates jobs. It actually is one of the things that facilitates health,” said Zuckerberg, citing Facebook’s work on connecting up Ebola treatment units.
“I’m certainly not here saying connectivity is more important than health. I mean, that would be ridiculous, but I hope that we can help out with all of these things over time.”
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