BBC News on the launch of Internet.org:
Mark Zuckerberg’s passionate interest in internet.org’s mission certainly seems genuine. But a business with 1.3 billion users that needs to to show investors that those numbers are continuing to rise will now be looking to Africa and Asia to increase its audience. So the philanthropic mission of internet.org and Facebook’s long-term business strategy are in perfect alignment.
I will belabor and quote myself from last year:
As I said to my friend Apolo this morning, This isn’t altruism. You can’t collect marketing data on 5 billion people if they are not on the internet. It’s capitalism dressed up as philanthropy. Can’t blame the guy for wanting to remove obstacles for the next 5-10 years of his company’s growth — which is measured by user acquisition. The larger the base, the more he can charge for advertising.
