Mark Zukerberg wants to connect 5 billion people by internet.org

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook Inc. who turned 29 in May this year, has found another mission in life. He wants the next five billion people to be connected on the Internet, most of whom will be on Facebook too.

Last week, Facebook decided the rest of the world ought to follow. In a post entitled "Is connectivity a human right?", the social network's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, wrote, "Facebook [connects] more than 1.15 billion people each month, but as we started thinking about connecting the next five billion, we realised something important: the vast majority of people in the world don't have access to the internet."

According to the World Bank, just 2.5 billion of the planet's seven billion people have a web connection. So Facebook, along with several more major tech firms, has launched Internet.org, an organisation whose methods remain hazy, but whose aim is to connect the other 4.5 billion. It's not a novel concept. In June, Google unveiled its own blue-sky scheme, Project Loon, a plan to deploy Wi-Fi-transmitting balloons over the world's most remote areas. Last week, the search giant invited volunteers in California to test the strength of the Loon signal.

David Rice, professor at New York University and Africa adviser to the Milken Institute said "I'm a believer in the power of connectivity even at the bottom of the pyramid, but I don't know if the ambition of connecting 5 billion people is realistic when you consider the fundamental challenges facing it."

Zuckerberg wasn't shy about suggesting "the next five billion" were potential Facebook users, but many claim he's more interested in creating customers for his business than in making life better for the poor. One commentator called the initiative "a canny business move dressed up to sound like charity".