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Facebook director Andreessen sorry for India Internet remarks

11Feb By reutersNo Comments

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Facebook director Andreessen sorry for India Internet remarks

Marc Andreessen, a prominent venture capitalist and Facebook Inc board director, apologised on Wednesday for tweets that condemned the Indian government for banning the social media company's free Internet service. India introduced rules on Monday preventing Internet service providers from having different pricing policies for accessing different parts of the Web, effectively dismantling Facebook's Free Basics programme, which offers a pared-back version of Internet service. Andreessen, who often takes to Twitter to offer his opinions, said the new rules denied India's poor access to the Internet. Only 252 million out of India's 1.3 billion people have Internet access. "Denying world's poorest free partial Internet connectivity when today they have none, for ideological reasons, s...

World is Shrinking, We are Just 3.5 Degrees Apart: Facebook

7Feb By AdityaNo Comments

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World is Shrinking, We are Just 3.5 Degrees Apart: Facebook

NEW YORK: You must have heard about the famous "six degrees of separation" theory that everyone on the planet is connected to everyone else by six other people. Facebook has just upended this theory, saying that world is more closely connected than you might think. After studying 1.59 billion people active on the social networking website, the team determined that the number is actually 3.57 -- meaning thereby that there is actually "three-and-a-half degrees of separation" where each person in the world is connected to every other person by an average of three-and-a-half other people. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is 3.17 degrees of separation from all Facebook users. According to researchers, our collective "degrees of separation" have shrunk over the past five years. In 2011, ...

4Feb By AdityaNo Comments

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Happy 12th Birthday Facebook

Today, February 4, marks Facebook’s 12th birthday. Each year Facebook recognize this day as Friends Day and invite the world to celebrate and reflect on the importance of connecting. When people connect, powerful things happen and lives are changed. We see this on Facebook every day, whether it’s an exchange with an old friend that brings a smile to your face or a new connection that changes your life path, or even the world. - said facebook in a press release. To celebrate, Facebook released an updated degrees of separation statistic, highlighting inspiring stories about the power of friendship, and launching new products to further encourage our community to rally around their friends today. Facebook Community Continues to Grow Closer Facebook said people are more connecte...

One Billion People are Using WhatsApp. That’s Nearly One in Seven People on Earth.

2Feb By AdityaNo Comments

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One Billion People are Using WhatsApp. That’s Nearly One in Seven People on Earth.

As of today, one billion people are using WhatsApp. That's nearly one in seven people on Earth who use WhatsApp each month to stay in touch with their loved ones, their friends and their family. We are proud of this milestone, and we're humbled by the extraordinary ways all of you have used WhatsApp. Whether it's sharing vital information during natural disasters or health emergencies, finding a date, growing a small business, buying an engagement ring, or seeking a better life – we're honored to be a small part of what people are doing to make their lives and the lives of those around them better - Whatsapp team shared on his blog. WhatsApp began with a simple idea: ensuring that anyone could stay in touch with family and friends anywhere on the planet, without costs or gimmicks standin...

Trai Set to Reject Differential Pricing For Data, Free Basics and Airtel Zero Services

30Jan By NitishNo Comments

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Trai Set to Reject Differential Pricing For Data, Free Basics and Airtel Zero Services

A big move taken by Trai (Telecom Regulator of India) is ready to reject differential pricing for data services. This move will end the debate on Facebook's Free Basics and Airtel Zero Services. Specially as a huge setback for Facebook, which has spend 300 crores on free basics support Advertisement. The order is also expected to bar free or subsidised data packages that offer access to only a select services, such as Facebook, Twitter or WhatsApp messenger. "These are discriminatory and are against the concept of digital democracy. We will not allow them," a source said to TOI.(Source)

Facebook Smashed Investors’ Expectations with a 52% Jump in Q4 Results

28Jan By NitishNo Comments

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Facebook Smashed Investors’ Expectations with a 52% Jump in Q4 Results

Facebook has smashed investors' expectations with a 52 per cent jump in quarterly revenue as it sold more ads targeted at a fast-growing number of mobile users, sending its shares sharply higher after hours. The world's biggest online social network bucked the trend of underwhelming tech results from Apple and eBay, in the face of economic turmoil in China and a strong US dollar depressing the value of overseas sales. Facebook's service is not available in China but it sells ads there. "It's phenomenal at these (currency headwind) levels that they're accelerating to that level of growth," said Rob Sanderson, an analyst at MKM Partners. "I don't think there's going to be too many people crying for them to start monetising other properties anytime soon because the core business is so ...

Facebook launches real-time sports platform

23Jan By reutersNo Comments

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Facebook launches real-time sports platform

Facebook Inc is tackling the sports arena with a new platform called Facebook Sports Stadium, which the social media site said will provide real-time updates on games, popular posts from fans, statistics and commentary from experts. "With 650 million sports fans, Facebook is the world's largest stadium," it wrote in a post on Wednesday announcing the feature. Facebook, which said it had an average 1.01 billion active daily users as of September, reports its fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday, Jan. 27. The new service appears to be an effort to encroach on Twitter's territory. The micro-blogging site has long been a popular destination for so-called "live-tweeting" games. MichaelAaron Flicker, president of XenoPsi, a New York City-based marketing firm, said the new product is ...

WhatsApp to drop subscription fees, no plans to launch ads

18Jan By reutersNo Comments

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WhatsApp to drop subscription fees, no plans to launch ads

Mobile messaging service WhatsApp, owned by Facebook Inc, said it will no longer charge annual subscription fees and plans to test tools to allow users to communicate directly with businesses and organizations via the app. WhatsApp, which has 900 million users worldwide and works across different types of phones, said it does not plan to launch third-party advertising to generate revenue. It only charges an annual subscription fee of 99 U.S. cents or the equivalent, which is waived for the first year, and said it would end its subscription fees over the next several weeks. It will test tools that allow users to communicate with businesses and organizations on WhatsApp, rather than through text messages and phone calls. "That could mean communicating with your bank about whether...

Facebook has blocked some of our ads: Hike Messenger

10Jan By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

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Facebook has blocked some of our ads: Hike Messenger

New Delhi, Jan 10: Home-grown Hike Messenger has accused Facebook of blocking an option in its advertisements which lets people visit the chatting application’s website. Run by Kavin Mittal, son of Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Mittal, Hike competes with Facebook-owned WhatsApp. Hike is owned by a joint venture of Bharti and Japan’s Softbank.”Advertisers have, among other options, the option to ‘Send people to your website’. A few weeks back we were suddenly blocked from using this option, while we were able to use other non action-led options,” a Hike spokesperson told. The spokesperson further added that initially, they assumed it was a technical glitch, but when the team wrote to Facebook, the social networking giant said Hike will not be able to run the ads. “There are specific ...

Money vs Volunteer: Facebook Loosing battle against Net Neutrality, 300 Crores Ads will Go in Vain

9Jan By PriyankaNo Comments

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Money vs Volunteer: Facebook Loosing battle against Net Neutrality, 300 Crores Ads will Go in Vain

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) discards over 14 lakh comments on the differential pricing policy through Facebook's Free Basics campaign. Slamming the campaign, the regulator body reached out to the supporters of Free Basics pointing towards the fact that the campaign supporters does not answer questions raised by TRAI in the consultation paper. TRAI has invited more comments on the consultation paper on 'Differential Pricing for Data Services' extending the deadline for views to January 7. The paper seeks to determine whether the free data and zerorating plans of telcos are misleading and violate net neutrality rules. As per reports, TRAI has received 18.27 lakh responses so far, some of which are through direct texts while about 14 lakh comments are through F...

Facebook’s Messenger app passes 800 million users

8Jan By reutersNo Comments

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Facebook’s Messenger app passes 800 million users

Facebook Inc's Messenger app surpassed 800 million users, the company said on Thursday, making it the fastest-growing app of 2015 according to research firm Nielsen. The means Messenger, which Facebook created as a standalone app in 2014, has more active monthly users than rivals Snapchat and Viber, but still lags the 900 million using WhatsApp, also owned by Facebook. WhatsApp was one of the first apps to let people send and receive free text messages on smartphones, bypassing network charges. Messenger users can also exchange messages, but the app also offers free video calling and some business services. "One of the things we have to work on this year is this perception or mindset that Messenger is only to speak with your Facebook friends," said Messenger head David Marcus in...

Facebook fights for free Internet in India, global test-case

1Jan By No Comments

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Facebook fights for free Internet in India, global test-case

Reuters: India has become a battleground over the right to unrestricted Internet access, with local tech start-ups joining the front line against Facebook Inc founder Mark Zuckerberg and his plan to roll out free Internet to the country's masses. The Indian government has ordered Facebook's Free Basics plan to be put on hold while it decides what to do. The program, launched in around three dozen developing countries, offers pared-down web services on mobile phones, along with access to Facebook's own social network and messaging services, without charge. But critics say the program, launched 10 months ago in India in collaboration with operator Reliance Communications, violates principles of net neutrality, the concept that all websites on the internet are treated equally. It wou...