Facebook is now a massive, publically traded company, and a
social media power that has now cemented itself onto the computers and phones
of most people with Internet access, either through Facebook itself or through
many of their other owned websites including Instagram, WhatsApp, and Friend.ly.
They have even invested into virtual reality technology called Oculus which
could very much change the video game industry. They are big enough where they
can make – and are making – a huge impact on the world.
So what is next for Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook? According
to him, the end goal is to give everyone access to the Internet. As stated in
the CNN Money article, “Mark Zuckerberg: Internet access can eradicate extreme
poverty,” Zuckerberg stated that “Connecting the world is one of the
fundamental challenges of our generation.”[1]
This article talks about how Zuckerberg argues for a world without poverty via connection
to the Internet. In order to do this Facebook is partnering with the United
Nations as of late September in their attempt to eliminate extreme poverty by
2030,[2]
which would be an incredible global achievement if accomplished. Not only will
this hopefully bring many countries slowly out of an impoverished, unconnected culture,
but will also get Facebook into many untapped markets. Though money is hopefully
not the main motivation with this initiative, it is one of the products of a
more connected society for the company, which they certainly cannot disagree
with or ignore.
In the news today, October 5th, Facebook
announced that they are taking a huge step to accomplish this feat of global
connectivity. Facebook is partnering with French satellite company Eutelsat in
order to launch a satellite that will give free internet access to 14 countries
across Sub-Saharan Africa.[3]
Facebook is “using satellites, lasers and drones to get the ‘next billion’
people around the world online as part of its Internet.org initiative.”[4]
No matter if Facebook is doing this because of Zuckerberg’s
supposed dream of a connected world, or because they want to tap into these
unexposed markets, these moves toward connectivity will have an unprecedented impact.
This connection could allow for more African countries to globalize, develop
and hopefully start to catch up in the ever-evolving world-wide economic
environment we live in now. Knowing that consistent internet is available in
these countries could further allow development-oriented organizations to do
work in these countries much more easily via easy communication with their home
base of operation, and allow easy money transactions or requests for
necessarily materials. One barrier that could stand in the way is the
presumably obvious lack of devices that the residents of these African
countries will have access to. With that said, there may have never been a big
enough internet presence for companies to look into providing these devices; these
steps that Facebook has made today could definitely change that.
[1] http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/26/news/mark-zuckerberg-united-nations-poverty-internet/?iid=EL
[2] http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/26/news/mark-zuckerberg-united-nations-poverty-internet/?iid=EL
[3] http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/05/technology/facebook-africa-satellites/
[4] http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/05/technology/facebook-africa-satellites/
I think it is a great idea to get the world connected to the internet, but the problem is that nothing is ever free. Someone is always paying the price. There are more important things needed for underdeveloped countries than Internet connection. This is a very ambitious goal for Facebook, and it seems as if they are just trying to get rid of their competition and profit over this.
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