From Google’s armada of giant balloons in the stratosphere to Facebook’s Internet.org project, massive efforts are underway to break down the world’s connectivity barriers. In a matter of years, three BILLION people will be experiencing a socially connected, mobile-friendly internet for the first time, driving transformation from politics to pop culture. This panel is about what happens next.

1. Are you ready for the next 3 billion
people to join the social web?
Editorial Manager, Hootsuite
@dgodsall
David Godsall

2. By March 2016, approximately half the world
will have internet access…
Source: International Telecommunications Union

3. What about the other half?
At the current rate of growth, another 3 billion
people will be able to get online by the end of 2018

4. It took 25 years to connect the first 3 billion.
How are the next 3 billion
going to get online so
FAST?

5. 3 Facts About Mobile Devices in 2015:
• There are now 7 billion mobile cellular
subscriptions globally.
• Mobile broadband penetration is at 47%, but
growing at approximately 20% annually.
• 3G population coverage is at 69% of the world, up
from 45% in 2011.
Photo: Oxfam East Africa
Source: ITU ICT Facts and Figures 2015

6. Internet.org
If you have a web-capable device and you live in a place that already has
coverage, but you can’t afford the data rates, one way you might soon get online
is through the Free Basics program from Facebook’s Internet.org. Launched in
2013, the program already offers limited mobile internet service to more than 9
million people, from India to Zambia.
Source: Internet.org

7. Project Loon
For areas where expanding conventional mobile network infrastructure isn’t
practical, there’s Google’s famous moonshot. Using a network of thousands of
balloons circling the earth’s stratosphere, the search giant plans to provide 3G-
like mobile data speeds to remote and rural areas.
Source: Wikimedia Commons

8. Community-led initiatives
Hundreds of innovative smaller projects are poised to fill in whatever coverage
gaps remain. Take the Village Base Station, from a startup called Endaga: this
simple, rapidly deployable technology enables remote communities to build their
own mobile networks.
Source: Endaga

9. For the next 3 billion,
getting online means
joining social media.

10. Picture the internet when
most of us first got
online.
Now imagine
connecting for the
first time in 2015.

11. Source: comScore global, Morgan Stanley. Adapted from Morgan Stanley Internet Trends 2010 (Mary Meeker)
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010+
UniqueUsers
Social is now the
communication medium of
choice for businesses and
consumers

12. Websites Facebook
Pages
15
Million
30
Million
BusinessesintheUnitedStates
Businesses
are now
twice as
likely to
have a
Facebook
page than a
website

13. How are the next 3 billion
going to change the
social web (and be
changed by it)?

14. That’s where these four come in…
Ebele Okobi
Head of Public Policy,
Facebook
Jonathan Donner
Author,
After Access
Alex Kantrowitz
Senior Technology Reporter,
BuzzFeed News
David Godsall
Editorial Manager,
Hootsuite
@EbeleOkobi
@JCDonner
@DGodsall
@Kantrowitz
Panel Moderator