Zuckerberg starts group to push web access for 5 bn people

Forms group with tech companies to expand access to the internet

Facebook Inc Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg is forming a group with other technology companies to expand access to the Internet for the five billion people who have yet to get online.

The new group, Internet.org, includes partnerships with mobile-device makers Samsung Electronics Co and Nokia Oyj, and chipmaker Qualcomm Inc., Facebook said in a statement yesterday. About one-third of the world’s population, or 2.7 billion people, have access to the Internet, and the group will help those who can’t afford to connect, it said.

“Everything Facebook has done has been about giving all people around the world the power to connect,” Zuckerberg said. “There are huge barriers in developing countries to connecting and joining the knowledge economy. Internet.org brings together a global partnership that will work to overcome these challenges.”

The new group, which follows Facebook’s own efforts to expand Internet access in emerging markets, intends to develop projects and mobilise industry and governments to enable more people to move online. Facebook, owner of the world’s largest social-networking service, is looking for new ways to attract more people to its service, which has more than 1.15 billion users.

‘Networked society’
Other partners include Web-browsing company Opera Software ASA (OPERA) and wireless telecommunications-equipment provider Ericsson AB. The group will focus on three key areas for developing countries, including making the Web affordable, using data more efficiently and supporting the development of new business models for improving access.

“We are committed to shaping the Networked Society — where everyone and everything will be connected in real time,” Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg said in the statement. “We believe affordable connectivity and Internet access improves people’s lives.”

In a white paper released yesterday, Zuckerberg said the “knowledge economy” is the future, and more people should be able to join it with access to the Internet while still enabling the industry to boost profits and build infrastructure.