Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, has mentioned during a hemisphere CEO summit in Panama City that he believes Cuba “definitely fits their mission” and he is willing to expand into Cuba, although the company doesn’t have any definite plans so far. The speech delivered by Mark Zuckerberg was generally dedicated to the plans of bringing Internet.org to Panama in the coming weeks and months; Cuba came into question when he was asked what he was thinking about recent opening of relations with the small island nation.
According to Zuckerberg, he thinks that Facebook’s mission is to bring people all over the world together and provide them with easy and convenient way of finding each other and keeping in touch wherever they live. In time, ideally, it means connecting all people in all countries. Right now, however, some countries have only limited access to the Internet and/or restricted economic policies that make introducing them into the network difficult. Cuba, however, is an example of a country that starts opening up after a long isolation – and it means that Facebook sees an opportunity here.
According to Fusion , so far the Internet coverage in Cuba is rather “deplorable.”
“Only 16 percent of Cubans currently have access to the Internet , and only 40 percent of those say they use social media… However, more than 90 percent of Cubans who use social media prefer Facebook to other social platforms. The poll also found that 61 percent of Cubans have cellphones, though they’re not 3G. Still, cellphone coverage means Cuba’s great technological leap to Internet coverage is doable.”
It is not the only example of how Facebook’s CEO is looking for opportunities whenever they arise. According to t he Inquisitr , during F8, a conference of Facebook developers, Zuckerberg mentioned an upgrade that is meant to keep Facebook ahead of things, namely – spherical videos.
“These videos give users an interactive video watching experience by allowing them to view it from different vantage points. Recorded with specialized cameras, spherical videos are not yet popular, but they are expected to be a big thing in the coming years as affordable 360-degree cameras will be sold in the market.”
Right now it looks like a gimmick for the sake of a gimmick, but Mark Zuckerberg is well-known for his business acumen – if he sees potential in it, it is likely to be profitable – and if he is looking at Cuba, it will bring him and his investors dividends as well.