Comment by leereeves
10 years ago
It won't be a billion poor people getting free Facebook access.
Indians who can afford smartphones and electricity, but not a basic data plan (how many?), will be getting Facebook access at the price of being subjected to advertising, tracking, etc.
People are crafty. You dont have to have electricity at home to charge your phone. Its enough there is one power source in the village. (There was a news story about a boy that built a windmill, and the villagers paid him a bit to charge their phones). You dont even need your own phone. You can share or rent one by the minute.
Second hand smartphones are getting pretty cheap. 2.8 billion people live on less than 2 dollars a day. A second hand smart phone might go for 20 dollars. So its a few weeks worth of savings.
Imagine all those people getting on Facebook. They will find a way to use it for what they need.
> 2.8 billion people live on less than 2 dollars a day. A second hand smart phone might go for 20 dollars. So its a few weeks worth of savings.
Ten weeks income, and someone who lives on 2 dollars a day can't afford to save 100% of their income to buy a smartphone.
And how much would used smartphone prices increase if a billion people wanted to buy one?
Sharing or renting makes more sense, but in that case, why not share the cost of a data plan?
I misread. 10 days income.