Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg has defended his company's downsized version of the Internet, called "Free Basics," which is offered in developing nations around the world.
Facebook launched Free Basics, a set of basic Internet services that is offered in more than 30 countries and has garnered some 15 million users over the last year, because, Zuckerberg maintains, everyone should have access to basic Internet services.
However, the service has come under some criticism, especially in India, where last week the country's telecommunications industry regulator asked the mobile network set to partner with Facebook on Free Basics to put its efforts on hold.
Among the criticisms of Free Basics is that it stifles innovation by limiting choice, undermines net neutrality by favoring some content providers over others and confines users within a walled garden.
Although Free Basics has introduced millions of new users to the Internet, doubts linger about Facebook's intentions.
"There's a suspicion that Facebook has ulterior motives," said Brian Blau, a research director at Gartner.
"They're in the business of making money," he told the media. "They'll have to do that to pay for this, and they haven't come out and said how that's going to work in the long term."
Another expert noted that Zuckerberg is all about collecting information and then selling it to marketers.
"This is a market he's looking at -- the undeveloped world -- that he can gather up and do the same thing with them that he'd done with the other billion Facebook users," he said.
By creating a walled garden, he says, Free Basics advances one of Zuckerberg's goals for Facebook.
The social network saw its shares dip six cents in the early going Tuesday from Monday's close to $102.16 U.S. Monday, within a 52-week trading range of $72.00 U.S. to $110.65 U.S.
Tech Insider
