SYDNEY: Wikipedia co-founder and technology entrepreneur Jimmy Wales has accused Facebook of putting advertisers ahead of its 890 million users.
Facebook was launched in 2004 with a stated mission of making the world more open and connected while helping people stay in touch with family and friends. When Facebook first listed on the NASDAQ in 2012, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said money was not the company’s top priority.
“Simply put: we don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services,” he told would-be investors. “I think more and more people want to use services from companies that believe in something beyond simply maximising profits.”
“In the process the purpose of Facebook has become about the advertisers more than it is about the users,” he said. “They do care about the users, of course, but they have two masters.” Mr Wales said.
Mr Wales co-founded Wikipedia, which is a non-profit and ad-free encyclopaedia that depends on regular fundraising drives to stay alive. Some commentators have complained its pleas for donations have become overly intrusive and unnecessary a claim it denies.
Mr Wales also founded Wikia, which lets users host their sites for free in exchange for ads.
“I think there are a lot of good reasons why Wikipedia and the mission of free knowledge for everyone should remain non-profit and have no ads.”
Mr Wales is frequently cited as the most successful internet entrepreneur who is not a billionaire thanks to his early decision to keep Wikipedia as a not-for-profit service.
Facebook is also attempting to spread internet services to the developing world through its “Internet.Org by Facebook” program, which attempts to give people free internet access to basic services like Wikipedia and Google Search.
However, Mr Zuckerberg told telco operators at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week that the service would become profitable as customers paid fees to stay connected or upgrade.
Facebook runs the world’s biggest social network with 9199 employees and a market capitalisation of $US223.9 billion ($295billion).
