"We want to make it so that anyone, anywhere -- a child growing up
in rural India who never had a computer -- can go to a store, get a
phone, get online, and get access to all of the same things that you and
I appreciate about the Internet," Zuckerberg said in an exclusive
broadcast interview
"They're going to use it to decide what kind of government they want,
get access to healthcare for the first time ever, connect with family
hundreds of miles away that they haven't seen in decades."
More
than 4.5 billion of the 7 billion people on Earth don't have Internet
access, according to the World Bank. The biggest gaps are in Eritrea
(just 0.8% have access), Timor-Leste (0.9%) and Myanmar (1.1%). Even in
the United States, 19% don't have Internet access.
About 1 billion people are already using Facebook.
Zuckerberg imagines a world in which everyone has the "same ability to
share their opinions and speak freely -- I think that would be a much
better place."
"Connectivity is a human right," he added.
Related: What the world will look like in 2045
Zuckerberg knows connecting everyone is a tall order, and he has signed
up big tech companies to join the effort, including Nokia, Qualcomm and
Samsung.
Other companies have embarked on a similar mission.
Google (GOOG, Fortune 500)
is sending balloons with radio antennas into the stratosphere as part
of a project called "Loon" aimed at connecting people without Internet
access. Alcatel-Lucent is bringing its inexpensive lightRadio technology to small villages without cell towers. And phone manufacturers are racing to develop smartphones that cost less than $15 -- a goal that even top-tier smartphone makers such as Nokia, Samsung and BlackBerry are working diligently to reach.
How much will it cost? Zuckerberg says he's already invested more than
$1 billion in his mission to get people connected, and he's "hoping to
do a lot more."
The key to the effort will be mobile, which is a big part of Facebook's growth strategy.
Facebook (FB)
stock tanked after its IPO last year when investors worried about its
efforts to generate advertising revenue from people checking Facebook on
mobile phones.
Related: Sheryl Sandberg sells $91 million of Facebook stock
The stock has had a rebound in recent months after the company began to
show progress in that area. Another 5 billion "customers" certainly
wouldn't hurt. But Zuckerberg bristles at the idea that the internet.org
campaign is about profits.
"If we really just wanted to focus
on making money, the first billion people who are already on Facebook
have way more money than the next five or six billion people combined,"
Zuckerberg said. "It's not fair, but it's the way that it is. And, we
just believe that everyone deserves to be connected, and on the
Internet, so we're putting a lot of energy towards this."
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