Nadine Freischlad · · 2 min readFollowing Zuckerberg’s visit last October, Internet.org launches today in Indonesia
(Updated at 16:35: Tech in Asia just received the news that online marketplace Tokopedia and e-learning platform Kelase are among the services offered in Indonesia’s version of Internet.org)
Mark Zuckerberg today announced the launch of the Internet.org service in Indonesia on his official Facebook account.
Indonesia had been a pilot country for this program last October, which attempts to make it easier for people in countries which still lag behind in terms of internet penetration to access the web. In this pilot, Facebook was working together with operators and developers to find ways to make transfer of data more efficient.
Now, Internet.org is essentially an app which makes access to a selection of sites not only faster and more efficient, but totally free. The app has already launched in numerous countries around the world, including the Philippines.
In today’s Facebook post, Zuckerberg said that in Indonesia, these free services from Internet.org are so far only available through the mobile phone carrier Indosat. This is unexpected because during the pilot research conducted in Indonesia the partnering phone operator was XL Axiata. On its Twitter account, XL Axiata said it was proud to be the first carrier to partner with Zuckerberg on the initiative. (Hat-tip to Coconuts.co for spotting this.)
Sampai jumpa lagi, Mark Zuckerberg! XL bangga menjadi operator pertama di dunia dalam kerjasama #XLFacebookEID ini. pic.twitter.com/Txm0uAL9EM
— XL Axiata (@XL123) October 13, 2014
Tech in Asia has reached out to Facebook’s Internet.org initiative for details and will update this story as we learn more.
Editing by Steven Millward, photo by Mark Zuckerberg
(And yes, we’re serious about ethics and transparency. More information here.)
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