Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2015/12/27/facebooks-fuddy-full-page-a.html
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@doctorow, maybe I’ve missed it - I’m surprised I haven’t seen anything from you on T-Mobile’s activity in this area…
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Facebook is desperate to ensure that the Internet never takes hold in developing nations – they want a walled garden that they get to own and operate.
I think “never” is a strong word here. I think they’d be happy if they can at least ensure that as the internet does take hold, Facebook also takes hold as the de facto social network in India.
This ad sponsored by the altruistic charitable corporate LLC founded by zucker.
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The guy who directed Airplane!?
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I was just explaining this to my cousin as we saw the ads on paper.
They could just have taken the money they spent on two full page ads in all the major national newspapers for two days straight and, I don’t know, maybe bought a few thousand people free Internet for six months straight. These ads cost some serious cash!
In the meantime, one of the local carriers has a much more sensible zero-rating scheme - basic service on 2G is free with a cap of some 2GB or so. Sure, you can’t stream videos, but hey, I grew up on 14400 baud dialup, so that’s still better… It’s enough to provide basic service, and I’m sure they’ll see a lot of conversions up to the higher tiers…
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No the bergerey one. There is a Zucker born ever second!
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This is so bugging!
The best part is so many people are not reading what FB is talking about and think its Net Neutrality and are supporting it.
There are billboards (fancy ones) - and not just the 1980’s era ad you have shown here.
I wish someone started the NN campaign once again just to drive in the difference between these 2 campaigns. I mean, who decides what website is a “basic” need for someone?!
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There’s probably a story there, about why Facebook isn’t already dominant in India. Could it be that the homegrown social networks are better suited to Indian society, or maybe Facebook has just been lazy about localising their service? (“Support Ganesh”? You can’t just slap a local deity’s name on an ad and expect an instant win.)
“Support Ganesh”? You can’t just slap a local deity’s name on an ad and expect an instant win.)
It certainly looks that way if you don’t read the text from the ad. A lot of people in India are named Ganesh, after the deity of course (like Hispanics with “Jesus”). From the ad: “Through a trial of Free Basics by Facebook, Ganesh learned new farming techniques that doubled his crop yield.”
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I stand corrected. I thought it was something along the lines of “What would Ganesh do?”
Although, one has to wonder how real Ganesh the farmer is.
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Although, one has to wonder how real Ganesh the farmer is.
Ganesh is as real as Harry and Louise… [Harry and Louise - Wikipedia]
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They’re pretty dominant, actually. However, their revenues from India are paltry, because most Indians don’t click on ads. One line of thought is that all this craziness is a way to create an alternate revenue source from India.
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Oh FB are pretty dominant in India. But no one here really uses the FB messenger. Whatsapp is way more popular. With free basics program including FB, I think they hope to push FB msgr here, which will significantly increase their no of users. (remember Whatsapp has a published record of 900mn active users only in India).
Though whatsapp is a part of FB post the acquisition, I dont think its popularity helps FB’s share price.
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Great way to confuse people even more about the term “net neutrality”.
“Are you for Net Neutrality or for Digital Equality?” Well, I… hum.
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I don’t suppose you know offhand if IGNOU classes are considered basic internet for the purposes of that service? It is the government and all.
Forget the top of my mind - not even after a few minutes research. There’s just no information of exactly what’s available on this damn thing. It’s just completely opaque.
But if you mean Aircel’s scheme, that’s completely neutral. No restrictions.
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