Facebook and many other online companies are thriving off of advertisement revenue. Facebook has openly admitted using complex algorithms to target adverts to specific consumers. Also Read: Mark Zuckerberg to Mobile Carriers: Facebook Is Good for Your Business Also Read: Facebook partners with mobile carriers to offer free data for Facebook messaging Back in 2013, Facebook partnered with 18 mobile operators in 14 countries to provide special pricing for usage of Messenger for Android, Messenger for iOS and Facebook for Every Phone. Facebook later expanded this to its feature phone application to be optimized for chat and added a number of new features to Messenger, including voice messaging and the ability to create a Messenger account without a Facebook profile. Fast-foward to 2019 and the Free Facebook idea is still alive. Only this time, you have to give something in return, and they are ‘kind enough’ to let you know what they’re taking. (Not that you would know what else they’re taking from you anyway.)
Back in 2015, Facebook opened its internet.org platform that provides basic information-orientated services for free in developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Internet.org is currently available in Kenya, Zambia, Ghana in Africa. This new development could be seen as an expansion of internet.org in which they involved companies get something out of it, everything inevitably geared towards fattening Facebook’s pockets.