Image courtesy – asterisk.apod.com
I’ve been watching the Facebook Free Basics vs. Rest of India and have been chuckling to myself. This is a classic case of ‘missing the woods for the trees’.
This is my proposition and I am even including Namo in it for good measure.
Note: I am not a civil liberties lawyer, nor a research scholar of the anthropology of the Internet. I am a digital entrepreneur trying to make a living.
My plan:
Namo – forget the bear hugs, go for a handshake
Namo hugged Zuckerberg so tightly in his visit to the Facebook HQ that he almost broke his ribs. Last week Namo was talking startups and entrepreneurship as if he was the Prime Entrepreneur of India – Not Prime Minister. So, this is my suggestion:
Call Zuckerberg to town and sit down with him. This boy (oops man) owns Facebook (265 Billion US$ market cap), Whatsapp (probably worth $500 billion when listed), Instagram, etc. He isn’t cheap change. Zucky Baba is PLEADING to push Facebook Free Basics and all that jazz into India and is spending some serious money and time in pushing it down our daily lives. He has lotsa money!
As an entrepreneur, this signals to me, “Zucky wants something really badly”.
Now, a ‘Dhandha Brain’ thinks, “If you want something from me, I want something from you”; and trade is all about bargaining, meeting, negotiating and trashing out what is in the BEST for me – in this case what is best for India.
Of course we CAN’T give Facebook the airwaves and access to people to do what they want, but we can EXTRACT from Facebook the money, the budgets, the commitment and say, “Let’s structure a term sheet for Free Basics”.
It’s a case of VC wanting more than a reasonable share or Shylock wanting Antonio’s life; but in both cases, the receiver (entrepreneur and Antonio) are always winning. It’s all about negotiating about what you want – not them.
Let’s examine WHY – not who, when, where and what
If Kellogg’s the food giant says, “One third of India is starving everyday – we want to give them free cornflakes”, what will we say? No? Starving our people is better than not exposing them to a brand that they may prefer forever for the rest of their lives?
In this case (thankfully), that’s not the situation! When Facebook says, “So many Indians will have access to Wikipedia”, my brain asks, “WHY will an Indian who has never accessed the Internet before go to Wikipedia?? Won’t they first try to download Bollywood songs or movies or worse still, porn? Which kid do you know, who when at home alone, goes and starts studying vs. watching cartoons on TV?
The point I’m making is that if Facebook wants to power up the Indian Internet for free, then let’s find out WHAT the first time Indian can be empowered to do to help himself and also the Nation! Can we let him watch content laced with Public Service messages? Curate 100 educational videos that teach them fundamentals of sanitation, respect for the girl child, not getting cheated in their farms, etc? Ask them to register on a portal for more guidance?
If a Think Tank can ‘curate’ the free access portal that has content that we all know is important for the country, then we surely could let Facebook fund the access while we gain the benefit?
Getting used to ‘Indecent – Outrageous Proposals’
In India, we are rising from the shadows of being a run-down country and the Facebook Free Basics is the first of many ‘indecent proposals’ to come our way. As our country gallops in GDP growth with a demographic under 30 years, all the barbarians of the world will be at our gate with mind bogglingly, outrageous proposals. Someone will want to our countrymen to give away free car rides; someone else, free laptops and someone else, free phones. All with hidden agendas of course.
Instead of beating them down, making them look bad, calling them evil and exorcising them, we must learn how to make them dance to our tune. This is OUR MOMENT and we have to make people who want access to our country and our people serve OUR agenda first. But we must do it with tact and deftness so that they don’t go away.
All 5 star hotels have a sign that says, ‘Rights to Admission Reserved’. All we need to say is, “Rights to India reserved. And everyone is welcome!”
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