With Internet.org, Facebook pledged to give basic mobile internet services for free to everyone on the planet. This sounds very ambitious and very difficult but Facebook is taking steps to make this possible. Earlier launched in Zambia, Kenya, Ghana and Colombia. Facebook is now concentrating on a huge market by launching it ( as promised last year ) in India.
This is not just a Facebook non-profit venture but a joint effort by mobile subscribers all over the world. The telecom industry’s partnership is the key reason Facebook is able to push this as fast as they can. For instance, Airtel is the key partner to bring Internet.org to Ghana. and so is Tigo in Colombia.
With a 1.25B population, India has a mobile user base of 930M users, Airtel dominates the user base with 210M users followed by Vodafone(178M), Idea(150M) and Reliance(106M). This puts Reliance in the top 4 Mobile Operators in India with a user base of little over 100M.
Facebook has partnered with Reliance Communications for Internet.org. Reliance customers in six Indian states (Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, and Telangana) will now have access to more than three dozen services ranging from news, maternal health, travel, local jobs, sports, communication, and local government information. ( Check the full list of free services below )
Most of the services will be available in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Gujarati and Marathi.
Facebook has always been focusing on mobile and Internet.org does exactly that, pushing all the important, relevant and accessible information via mobile. This is mainly because out of the 890M daily users, 745M users access Facebook via mobile making mobile users their primary target.
The full list of services includes:
- Aaj Tak: Read news in Hindi
- AccuWeather: Get updated weather information
- amarujala.com: Read news in Hindi
- AP Speaks: Engage with local government
- Babajob: Search for jobs
- BabyCenter & MAMA: Learn about pregnancy and childcare
- BBC News: Read news from around the world
- Bing Search: Find information
- Cleartrip: Check train and flight schedules & buy tickets
- Daily Bhaskar: Read local news
- Dictionary.com: Search for meanings of words
- ESPN Cricinfo: Get cricket updates
- Facebook: Communicate with friends and family
- Facts for Life: Find health and hygiene information
- Girl Effect: Read articles and tips for girls
- HungamaPlay: Listen to music
- IBNLive: Read news
- iLearn: Learn from Women Entrepreneurs
- India Today: Read local news
- Internet Basics: Learn about the basics of the Internet
- Jagran: Read local news
- Jagran Josh: Get education and career information
- Maalai Malar: Read news in Tamil
- Maharashtra Times: Read news in Marathi
- Malaria No More: Learn about malaria
- manoramanews.com: Read local news
- Messenger: Send messages to friends and family
- NDTV: Read news
- Newshunt: Read news in English
- OLX: Buy and sell products and services
- Reliance Astrology: Read your horoscope
- Reuters Market Lite: Get farming and crop information
- Socialblood: Register to donate blood
- Times of India: Read news
- TimesJobs: Search for jobs
- Translator: Translate words and phrases
- Wikipedia: Find information
- wikiHow: Find information
via fb newsroom | Internet.org App Now Available in India
