After visiting Indonesia on the mission of connecting the rest of world’s population six months ago, Facebook’s Founder Mark Zuckerberg officially launched internet.org, the campaign’s spearhead, a couple of days ago (17/4).
The campaign derived from the fact that two third of world’s population are not connected the internet. Many challenges serve as the barrier, namely geographic, social cultural, economic, infrastructure, and content localization. Hence, the internet.org he initiated will focus on the economic sphere.
In his official statement on his Facebook Page, Zuckerberg retold about his journey to Taman Kampoeng Cyber in Yogyakarta.
According to him, it’s really inspiring to see how internet helps someone to share his talents and bright ideas throughout the world. The statement was inducted into a photograph which shows Zuckerberg who was talking to a merchant that uses his Facebook page to share his t-shirt designs to others.
“Everyone in Indonesia will have the chance to share about the goodness of internet and access free services on career, education, health, and communication through Indosat network,” said Mark Zuckerberg.
Unlike his first visit which involved XL Axiata in the process, this time Indosat emerges as internet.org’s partner.
Users may access internet for free using Indosat SIM cards (IM3, Mentari, and Matrix). They only have to go to www.internet.org or by downloading the app at Google Play Store for Android devices. In the meantime, free services include Facebook, Wikipedia, Ask.com, Accuweather, OLX, Tokopedia, Jobstreet, and Unicef.
According to a report by CNN Indonesia, the Facebook’s scheme is in line with Indosat’s, which is to contribute to the government’s mission of providing broadband internet to 50% Indonesian population by 2019.
“We must take into account that 70 percent of Indonesian cellular users still utilize 2G network and feature phone,” Alexander Rusli, Indosat’s CEO, commented.
