When Ganesh can Buy a Smartphone, he Can Very Well Pay for the Data

I have not seen a more manipulative advertisement than what is coming from Facebook on FREE BASIC for the past few days. The one which came today is outrageous. The headline days: “SUPPORT GANESH  -  SUPPORT DIGITAL EQALITY”, with a photo of a family apparently from a humble background.

It’s not just a lie, it is evil.

When Ganesh can buy a net compatible smart phone, he can very well pay about Rs.20/- or as needed, for internet data for the benefit of his entire family of 4. He doesn’t need a support for saving that Rs.20/- and in return getting content that is controlled by a commercial enterprise like Facebook. And let’s talk about EQALITY as mentioned in the advertisement. What Ganesh will get, will not be EQUAL to what the rest of the people will get. For example: others will get Google as search engine where 90% of the people go to find content. Ganesh will have to go to Bing where less than 4% of the people go. Is this Equality? All those like Ganesh, would like to fly in the open sky not making rounds in a well.

And how this Free Basic will demolish the entrepreneurship and level playing field, can be seen by just one example. To gain market share you don’t need to be providing the best products, services and rise to the top through your sheer intelligence, hard work and professionalism. Even if you are so-so in all the other things, but you are able to cut a deal with Facebook to get included in the Free Basic, your market share will shoot up overnight. Now, as an entrepreneur, among other things, I will also have to think how to please Facebook and conform to its guidelines so that my content finds a place on Facebook’s server to be streamed to the larger audience.        

Let us ask a question. Do those people who can’t afford Rs.20/- for data, need the sites like Wikipedia, BBC News, Bing Search, Dictionary.com? Just think, who is the target of Free Basic? It is of course not those who are below the poverty line. The target is people like you and me or the middle class who may feel lazy in renewing the data plan or forget to recharge and those who may like to keep it as an emergency. If my 12 year old son pesters me for a mobile, I may buy one and give him a connection with Free Basic.

And the last point.  I am yet not able to comprehend the advertisement budget of Facebook for pushing this down the throat of all of us. Being in the ad business and having a clear idea about the rates of major print publications, I can imagine the cost of two full page ads coming almost all over India for the past few days.  Any modest calculation will amount to a figure excess of Rs.200 Crores spent so far. Is Facebook spending this kind of money to take India forward or make a billion people connected so that they can get jobs and health care and education? Is this money coming from MZ’s foundation as part of some social responsibility? Make no mistake. It is business and a very profitable business.   

I don’t think our government will give the control of the minds of about a billion people to a commercial enterprise. Those in marketing will understand the value of gaining mind share very well. That directly result in gaining market share. I know there are hundreds of the benefits of having Free Basic. But no sensible person in the world will hand over the evil in its bare form. It has to be camouflaged in goodness.

I am already feeling helpless. There are petitions signed to support free basic. On one side there is a giant organization with unlimited ad budget and on the other hand, there are individuals, activists with no budgets. And people like me, writing this article at the cost of my own productive office time.  Is there a comparison? Still, thanks for the maturity of our people. We all protested internet.org last year when it was introduced. The same thing repackaged into Free Basic, got the support of only 3.2 million people as per the ad, from a billion users, which is too less despite their huge ad campaign. I am sure, our government will let the internet remain FREE from any control by any person or organization.   

Dear Mark, stop looking at India as a poor country. We are not South Africa or Latin America or other countries in the South and South East Asia, where you had been successful with this. India’s telecom revolution was far more successful than many of the developed countries. Similarly, we can take care of the internet as well. We have other priorities now than making more and more people getting addicted to crazy games and doing as you want them to do. Those who need internet will get it. It is not expensive here. Still, we have lots of internet kiosk in villages and small towns where people go and do what they need to do. Try out this Free Basic in at least one of the developed countries first then come to us. Till then leave our people to fly high and our businesses to compete in the free market environment. Thank you.