A Case Study Analysis of Facebook's Internet.org Initiative

This case study examines Facebook's Internet.org initiative, focusing on its stated goal of serving the 'bottom of the pyramid' in emerging economies. It explores the initiative's outline, impact, and whether it primarily aimed to expand Facebook's reach. The analysis covers the benefits of providing internet access, such as improvements in education and healthcare, alongside potential drawbacks like exposure to inappropriate content. The study questions whether Internet.org genuinely prioritizes social good or serves as a business development strategy for Facebook to increase its user base and revenue. Ultimately, the analysis suggests that while the initiative may offer some benefits, its primary driver is likely Facebook's expansion into new markets.

RUNNING HEAD: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS 1
CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
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CASE STUDY ANALYSIS 2
Contents
Case 1: Facebook’s Internet.org Initiative: Serving the Bottom of the Pyramid?.....................2
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Question 1: Give brief outline of Facebook’s Internet.org’s initiative......................................2
Question 2: Discuss the impact of Internet.org on emerging economies...................................3
Question 3: was the Internet.org initiatives really about serving the bottom of the pyramid or
was it more about Facebook trying to expand its reach? Analyse.............................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................4
Reference....................................................................................................................................5

CASE STUDY ANALYSIS 3
Case 1: Facebook’s Internet.org Initiative: Serving the Bottom of the Pyramid?
Introduction
The case talks about the Internet.org as initiated by Facebook. The organization of the
company is claimed to be a non-profit organization however the fact of the matter is that
Internet.org is a business growth or development group as a part of Facebook aiming to raise
the users as well as revenues of the company. The head of the group is Chris Daniels whose
whole career was at Microsoft as well as on Facebook as an important part of business
development (Caine et al, 2015). The main process behind business development as the
process at the organization accountable for recognizing, saving and managing association
with a company outside the organization which happens to exclude consumers and suppliers
that assist other important functions at the organization accomplishing the respective
objectives. And this is why Internet.org is all about (Roy et al, 2016). The function of the
organization is to operate with other organizations, carriers and government body to assist the
company to accomplish its objectives to raise the number of users of Facebook. People
usually presume that Internet.org is a non-profit organization launching by CEO of Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg and dedicate in order to bring access of the Internet to people who won't be
able to access it rightly or even afford it (Donner et al, 2015). However, the reality of the
Internet.org came into existence in previous week when the country like India has banned it
from the nation. When the Internet is ideal and Internet.org comfortably present to get people
over it and why it must be banned.
Question 1: Give a brief outline of Facebook's Internet.org’s initiative.
The initiative of company's Internet.org initiated by Mark Zuckerberg with an aim to give
people from third world nations with the access to the internet. With the help of many other
companies, Interent.org provide the public with an access to the internet via cheap phones as

CASE STUDY ANALYSIS 4
well as developing good access to connection and data in areas that previously didn't have
anything at all (Schoemaker, 2014). The application was developed via which consumer can
gain some access to Facebook, information of government, healthcare services and other
things like news. The claim of the Zuckerberg that connection is related to human rights and
also made it as a goal via Internet.org to provide the access to the internet for the people who
are not connected (Ekholm Piper et al, 2015).
Internet.org part of the business is doing different things just to connect the poor people to the
resources available online and they also cover drones to free amount of access. For this
reason, the important way is through a website as well as app consisting Facebook Free
Basics. One can also access Free Basics just with the permission with the help of the carrier.
There are many free basics is present in thirty-eight nations, all of which exist in Asia, Africa
and many other countries (Hernandez et al, 2016).
Question 2: Discuss the impact of Internet.org on emerging economies.
Internet.org have actually brought some big influences on the present economies where many
such outcomes are ideal and some are not very bad (Wyche et al, 2017). For instance, there
are effective methods of getting the Internet has brought many benefits to the society like
motivating many growths and fundamental human rights and also improve the lives of
people. In addition, there is so many emerging economies credit which goes to Internet.org
because they can be seen with great improvement in the field of education as well as health
sectors (Long et al, 2014). For example, there are some children that can now understand via
E-learning that is present on the online platform and it can be very flexible to people who are
in different places there are not ample places or schools. On the contrary, interenet.org have
also brought some negativity like moral values, where children can be accessed towards
things that they must not watch at an early stage of life. (Mann et al, 2018). For instance,

CASE STUDY ANALYSIS 5
Facebook never enforced the community features needed by an organization that is setting
shop on the website.
Question 3: was the Internet.org initiatives really about serving the bottom of the
pyramid or was it more about Facebook trying to expand its reach? Analyse.
The complete initiative is far more related to the expansion of the services that can connect
the whole world. The main factor behind this is based on some less or few developed nations
which have no connection on the Internet or instead the connection of internet is poor to
actually help the consumer as well (Olivan, Javier). Therefore, the founders of the Facebook
and the partner thought of coming up with methods to bring a trusted connection for the
consumer to get services of Facebook without having any issues because of internet.org. The
main goal is based on bringing many other benefits to them like rising the number of
consumers via expansion.
Recommendations
Facebook has to focus on the different areas, which are aiming at the complete size of the
information load so that there is no reject to any websites for some factors that are not
considered technical. Facebook also claims that any website along with competitors is
permitted to join the Internet by Facebook. Finally, one can reach as there are so many
hundred websites so one must generously use hundred of a number of websites on the current
service.
Conclusion
Internet.org has made a lot of claims and the most important one is that it provides the access
to the Internet for free. But, it is not the Internet that is offered by Internet.org. One other
difference is scale and there are some dozens of websites on Facebook free basics. For some
time, the number is just 38, however, they continue to grow (Park, Jieun, and Seongcheol

CASE STUDY ANALYSIS 6
Kim). The most conventional number of websites on the web that one can find is related to
two billion websites (Prasad et al, 2017).
Reference
Caine, Amanda, Peter Dorward, Graham Clarkson, Nicholas Evans, Claudia Canales, David
Stern, and R. Stern. "Mobile applications for weather and climate information: their use and
potential for smallholder farmers." (2015).
Donner, Jonathan. After access: Inclusion, development, and a more mobile Internet. MIT
Press, 2015.
Ekholm Piper, Helen. "Corporate Social Responsibility: A genuine commitment or just good
advertising." (2015).
Hernandez, Kevin, Becky Faith, Pedro Prieto Martín, and Ben Ramalingam. The impact of
digital technology on economic growth and productivity, and its implications for employment
and equality: An evidence review. No. IDS Evidence Report; 207. IDS, 2016.
Long, Lesley-Anne, Sara Chamberlain, and Kirsten Gagnaire. "The 80–20 Debate:
Framework or Fiction? How Much Development Work Is Standardized across Geographies,
and How Much Is Customized for Local Conditions." Innovations: Technology, Governance,
Globalization 9, no. 3-4 (2014): 87-96.
Mann, Laura. "Left to other peoples’ devices? A political economy perspective on the big
data revolution in development." Development and Change 49, no. 1 (2018): 3-36.
Olivan, Javier. "INTERVIEW JAVIER OLIVAN, FACEBOOK “OUR GOAL IS TO
CONNECT."
Park, Jieun, and Seongcheol Kim. "Flying Internet for the Unwired: How to implement sky-
streaming internet in the developing world."

CASE STUDY ANALYSIS 7
Prasad, Revati. "Ascendant India, digital India: how net neutrality advocates defeated
Facebook’s Free Basics." Media, Culture & Society (2017): 0163443717736117.
Roy, Abhimanyu, and Ali Zalzala. "A Framework for Marketing IoT-Based Innovations to
the Next Billion." In European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, p. 662.
Academic Conferences International Limited, 2016.
Schoemaker, Emrys. "The Mobile Web: Amplifying, but Not Creating,
Changemakers." Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization 9, no. 3-4 (2014): 75-
85.
Wyche, Susan, and Eric PS Baumer. "Imagined Facebook: An exploratory study of non-
users’ perceptions of social media in Rural Zambia." new media & society 19, no. 7 (2017):
1092-1108.