Open to advertising for revenue: Internet.org VP

Facebook's Free Basics program may be open to exploring advertising avenues for revenue at a later date. Internet.org vice president Chris Daniels hinted at the possibility in a keenly followed Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Saturday with aggressive questioning from Redditors. The hour-long AMA session had nearly 500 comments by the time it was over. "While we haven't found any business model where ad revenue could pay for people's access to the internet (look at Facebook's revenue, its far, far less than revenue operators receive from data charges), if there is a way that we can do so, then we want to be able to explore that in the future," Daniels said, responding to a question about the feasibility of such a model, as used by Gigato and Mozilla. In September this year, the social networking giant had renamed its Internet.org program to "Free Basics by Facebook." Free Basics is now a part of the larger Internet.org program. Under Free Basics, telcos and developers can tie up with Facebook by complying with certain tech standards. The services of these developers are then offered without any charge for data consumption to end users. Are Multiple Sclerosis Patients Experts?Living Like You by Novartis Released: New Cheap Hotel Finder From Save70.comSave70 Recommended By Colombia This practice has been described as "zero-rating," and has been panned by various activists who say it violates the principle of net neutrality. According to the principle, all data online should be treated equally. This AMA happened on a day when the save the internet campaign, that has taken a vocal stance against Free Basics, crossed the one-lakh figure in the letters sent to the telecom regulator from its platform for an ongoing consultation on differential data pricing.