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Facebook‘s Internet.org project is taking on its biggest market yet.
Internet.org, an effort to provide free mobile Internet to developing markets, launched in India this week, Facebook announced late Monday.
The service will be available in six different states in India and offer users access to a range of healthcare, communication and news services, including the Wikipedia, the BBC — and, of course, Facebook.
“Over the last year, we’ve rolled out Internet.org free basic services to countries with more than 150 million people total across Africa and Latin America,” Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s cofounder and CEO, said in a post on his Facebook page announcing the launch. “More than 6 million people are already connected to the internet who previously weren’t, and we’ve started hearing incredible stories about how the internet is changing lives and communities.
Internet.org had previously launched in Ghana, Zambia, Kenya, Colombia and Tanzania.
India is of particular importance to the company, however, as analysts expect it to surpass the United States as Facebook’s largest market of users
India is of particular importance to the company, however, as analysts expect it to surpass the United States as Facebook’s largest market of users in the near future.
Zuckerberg has frequently talked about the value of Internet.org to connect the entire world to the Internet. Last month, however, he was forced to defend the effort on an earnings call when an analyst questioned why Facebook investors should care about the ongoing project.
“It matters to the kind of investors that we want to have, because we are really a mission-focused company,” Zuckerberg said in a sharp response, before adding that it could prove a “good business opportunity for us” some years out. “As these countries get more connected, the economies grow, the ad markets grow, and if Facebook and the other services in our community, or the number one, and number two, three, four, five services that people are using, then over time we will be compensated for some of the value that we’ve provided.”
