Denis O’Brien has another swipe at Facebook

Denis O’Brien, owner of the Digicel telecoms business, has long been critical of Facebook and the way it goes about its business.

Six years ago, O’Brien described the Facebook business model as that of someone who comes to your party and “drinks your champagne, and kisses your girls”, but never pays their way. This is a reference to the fact that companies like Facebook have capitalised on the vast investments in broadband networks made by the likes of Digicel without contributing to the cost of the pipes and wires.

Just last month, during a lecture at Cambridge University in memory of the late Fianna Fáil minister for finance Brian Lenihan, the Irish entrepreneur said democracy was “under threat” from Facebook, which he claimed was “allowing its platform to facilitate anarchy”.

‘Dramatic pivot’

In a video for the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development (an entity co-founded by Unesco in 2010) published last month, O’Brien noted how about 3.5 billion people, mostly in the developing world, have no access to broadband.

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His solution is a “dramatic pivot” so that “everybody who derives a benefit from a customer using broadband should contribute to the cost”.

“In Africa alone, $100 billion is needed to build broadband networks,” he said. “If we change the way these are paid for and not just leave it to telcos and governments but instead get OTT [Over the Top providers of content via broadband] to contribute to the cost of these networks we will make a dramatic difference.”

‘A game-changer’

According to O’Brien, Facebook (or should that be Meta?) derives $2-$2.50 in monthly revenue per customer in Africa. “If they were to pay 10 per cent of these revenues, say 25c per user, into a fund that is paying for this $100 million dollar rollout of broadband this would make a substantial difference. Not alone would Facebook pay but every OTT that derives a benefit from attracting customers using broadband that we all contribute to would be a game-changer.”

Interestingly, the broadband commission video on YouTube is dated October 28th, 2021, some four days after O’Brien told the Cambridge audience that “Facebook generates the equivalent of one dollar per month per Facebook user” in Africa.

While the lower figure would still amount to a tidy sum, O’Brien might want to get his numbers straight before his next swipe at Facebook.