Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) Launches Its Internet App in Kenya Too- A Selfless Step?

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By Hanson So on November 14, 2014 Social Media

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) announced on November 10, 2014, that it will launch its internet.org app very soon in Kenya for the Airtel users there. The company already launched this app in the regions of Tanzania and Zambia. Airtel users can use this app to access the internet regarding basic services related to employment, education, finance, communication, health and local services. This app provides free internet access; meaning that the customers can check news on BBC, browse the internet, check weather forecasts, contact their friends on Facebook and visit the Unicef website for health related issues without any charges.

According to Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), this project was launched to demonstrate the importance of internet in our lives. In order to meet this target, the company is in a process of entering into deals with several cellphone operator companies in many different parts of the world.

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has reached an agreement with the biggest telecommunication company in Kenya, Bharti Airtel. It is important to note here that Bharti Airtel provides cellphone services to 300 million users in 20 different countries in the region of Africa and Asia. As for Tanzania, Facebook struck a deal with Tigo.

Deloitte released a report in February 2014, whereby it mentioned that the project started by Facebook can create as many as 140 job opportunities and can lift as many as 160 million people out of poverty. This step will also increase the user base of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) in the countries where it has become saturated over the years.

Evgeny Morozov, in an opinion posted in the Sunday Review in the month of August, called the Facebook app a ‘gateway drug’. According to Evgeny, this app comes last in the venture humanitarianism category, for the app has its laudatory goals but contested methods. Where the app does provide free access to the subscribers of partners’ operators, the normal charges are applied to other users. This distinction can cause a lot of problems in the near future.

The users will not be able to access full internet, rather some parts of it in the form of access to specific websites, which is against the idea of free and equal internet for all. The users will have to pay if they want to access more websites.

The chief executive officer of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Mark Zuckerberg, in the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelone, mentioned the reasons as to why this project was good and rational. According to him, the project will give free access to healthcare, jobs and other basic facilities. However, the project is not as unselfish as it sounds; Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) also wants to increase its market size behind this laudatory scheme.

As far as the shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) go, the company is currently trading in the range of $73.64 to $75.24, with a P/E (price to earnings ratio of 70.45. The market capitalization of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) stand at $209.35 billion.