More than 70 percent of Facebook’s developer partners are located outside the U.S. and Facebook has partnered with many African developers to launch products for the global market, BizTechAfrica reported.
At its annual F8 developer conference held April 12 and 13 in San
Francisco, Facebook said it has included African developers in its beta testing
program for new global products as the social media giant increases its presence on the continent.
Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, said his company is close to launching its first satellite in space to provide Internet access to sub-Saharan Africa. The satellite will be launched in the “next few months” he said, TechZim reported.
The satellites were first announced in October. Facebook partnered with French satellite operator Eutelsat to bring Free Basics, aka Internet.org, to more people without Internet access. Eutelsat provides Internet coverage over Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India and parts of Asia and the Americas.
“We believe that local entrepreneurs and developers will be the ones to meet the needs of their immediate community, and we are working with developers to know how we can support them in doing so,” said Emeka Afigbo, strategic product partnerships manager at Facebook, BizTechAfrica reported. “We are listening to our developer partners in Africa.”
African developers who partnered with Facebook to launch products at F8 include:
Two developer teams from Malawi won a developer challenge supported by Facebook and mobile operator TNM Malawi and Facebook. Zuckerberg and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg personally congratulated them on the F8 stage, BizTechAfrica reported.
They include:
Facebook’s free Internet.org/Free Basics for the developing world has been controversial, according to TheRegister.
The Internet service requires a SIM card from a participating mobile operator, and gives free access to Facebook, BBC News, Dictionary.com, er, ESPN and a other sites.
It operates in 37 countries, but is banned in Egypt and on hold in India. So far, 24 million people are using the free sites, according to Ime Archibong, Facebook’s director of product partnerships, TheRegister reported.
Developers who are spoiled by broadband get to walk a mile in the shoes of less privileged developers, thanks to Facebook’s Free Basics Simulator, a development kit that allows coders to experience exactly what it’s like using a basic handset with a 2G or 3G connection. So far, 500 developers have been using the software in beta.
“It has been tremendously useful for us,” said Jack Herrick, CEO of how-to website wikiHow. “We slimmed down images and took out most of the Javascript, which makes our site run a lot faster – and now people stay longer as a result.”
His website tried other methods for delivering webpages to developing countries, including sending out USB thumb drives containing documents, and sponsoring free laptops for schools with the website pre-loaded, but nothing worked as well as Internet.org, Herrick said.
Facebook also made available “Demographic Insights for Developers,” which helps websites “better understand the types of people using their services on Free Basics.” Facebook said it lets developers tailor the content and product experience of their Free Basics service.
Half of all Internet.org users buy a data plan from their mobile service provider within a month of trying Facebook’s free service, said Emeka Afigbo, Facebook’s manager for product partnerships for Middle East and Africa.
