Facebook: "our goal is to connect the world" - "TechnoTron"

Facebook

Growth of Facebook Vice President talks about the future of social networks in Colombia and Latin America.

FACEBOOK, SOCIAL NETWORKS, INTERNET

Facebook began in 2004 as a social networking service for students of Harvard University. Since then it has become a global company, with a valuation of more than $200 billion and more than 1 billion active users. In July, 2014, Facebook along with telecommunications companies and other partners launched Internet.org, an effort to expand access to the web and to develop more efficient and inexpensive technologies. In a recent conversation by e-mail with publishers of 'Americas Quarterly', Javier Olivan, Vice President of growth of Facebook, he described how you are doing to the initiative in Latin America and why connectivity continues to be a challenge in the region.

How Internet.org can change the lives of the users in Latin America? Where have you seen the major gaps in terms of use?

We have put our free basic services available to 500 million people worldwide and the results are encouraging: almost seven million people who were not connected now are. Nine of 10 people in the world live in areas with connections through 2 Gor 3 G networks, but just a little more than one-third of the world's population has internet access. These data tell us that, for many, connectivity barriers are social and economic. Many people simply cannot afford access to data, especially those who are at the base of the economic pyramid; and some of those who could affordit do not know why you would want to access the internet.

If we can find ways to offer free access to basic services such as messaging, Wikipedia and search engines, this will enable this population to come into contact with the network and thus understands why it is valuable to them. This is why we have released Internet.org. With this application, people can navigate a series of health, local information, and employment-related services free of charge. We hope that,offering basic services for free, more people connect and so we can help them discover valuable aspects that have not used otherwise.

Where do Facebook see the greatest potential for growth in connectivity for the region?

There is plenty of room for growth in Latin America. Take for example the case of the three largest Nations, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, which have a combined population of 365 million people and 171 million monthly users of Facebook. A recent study of Internet.org revealed that only 46.7% of the population in the continent is currently online. This implies that there are still major challenges for connectivity in the region. Our goal is to connect the world, not only with Facebook, but with the internet as a whole.

In January, we took our first step to accelerate the growth of the internet in Latin America with the launch of a series of free basic services through Internet.org in Colombia, including the site health information 1doc3, AccuWeather, AgroNet (agricultural information platform) and Wikipedia. We did this in conjunction with the Government of President Santos and with our allies of Tigo.

What is the future of Facebook in the region as internet becomes more accessibleservice and change the landscape of social media marketing?

As an industry, we are working hard together with our partners in the telecommunications sector to bring connectivity to all in the region. We are planning the launchof Internet.org in other countries, as well as Colombia. As the network becomes more affordable, more people will have access to the information and tools to growyour business.

In the last 10 years Facebook has been adapted to the behavior of people, from being a service based on desktop to a mobile company. For example, we know that in many parts of Latin America people still depend on simple mobile phones, so we designed a light version of our application so that he could run on these devices. Another good example is Paraguay, where we launched Facebook in guarani, an indigenous language which is still spoken by a significant percentage of the population.

For the majority of people just you are connecting to the internet, Facebook is oneof the first experiences that will have in this medium. That is simply because your friends and family are already on the platform and thus it is easier for them to connect and share. Facebook not only facilitates these kinds of connections, but is more and more used by Governments to come into contact with its citizens.

What are the challenges for the scope of Facebook in the region? Do the privacy and electronic security represent concerns? How are service using Latin Americans?

The real challenge is that too many people do not have connection in the region. Ifpeople don't have access to mobile data plans, then do not you are connecting toour service, or any other network. We see the benefits that internet can bring people through the possibility of contact information and your friends and family. If most of the world don't have access to this, then we all lose.

Your privacy is our highest priority. Give control to people about what they share is something that is at the heart of what we do. We think the privacy since we started to build a product until it is released. We know that people will only rely on Facebook where we do a good job protecting your information.

One of the impressive things about Latin America is the speed with which Facebook is transforming the lives of people. Latin Americans, out going and social by nature, Facebook have assimilated to the point that, in some parts, the service is synonymous with internet. It is not a coincidence that the Spanish outside the second language in which runs the platform and in just a few years Brazil became one of the largest on the site communities, with 92 million people using the service each month, most from their mobile devices. From the city of Mexico, to Buenos Aires, we have seen that the majority of people are online via Facebook sharing important information for them, informing it and doing business.

Have government restrictions hit Facebook in Latin America in the same way that happened in other places? How does the company face these challenges?

The main obstacles for connectivity in Latin America are the economic constraints and lack of awareness. Internet.org focuses on both subjects, thus improving the lives of millions of people in the region. So far, we have carried the initiative Colombia in conjunction with the Government and, more recently, Guatemala. We hope to continue with other Nations on the continent.

Social networks are seen, mostly as a tool for those who already have digital literacy, as urban residents, students and young professionals, among others. How to can these services get to a wider population?

Internet today, representing one-third of humanity. We think that it should represent us all. Two-thirds of the world do not have access to the network and the growth is not happening as fast as it should. When more than four billion people can not access to the web, then all us we steal our ideas and potential.

Internet connects us with our friends and communities, but is also the basis of the knowledge economy and a way to offer basic financial services and health, as well as educational tools. When everyone can participate in the global knowledge economy, all of us can benefit from the ideas and productivity that they contribute to the world.

In the 90s we had not have imagined the scope of Facebook and other successfulcompanies on the internet. Think that you are are companies in 20 years?

I prefer to think in terms of how will be products in the future and not the companies that make them. Products and services that will succeed will be those that will allow better forms of connection between people, as it is the case today. I look ahead to see innovations that allow people to share experiences of new forms. And on Facebook, we expect to be a big part of this.

FACEBOOK, SOCIAL NETWORKS, INTERNET