Courtesy of Facebook: Zero-Rated Apps for Airtel Zambia

Facebook launched its first "Internet.org" service, based on the acquired Onavo technology [see "Facebook Acquires Onavo for $100M" - here] in Zambia.

Internet.org defines "Efficiency" as one of the solution they look for: "Transmitting data—even a text message or a simple web page—requires bandwidth, something that’s scarce in many parts of the world. Partners will invest in tools and software to improve data compression capabilities and make data networks and services run more efficiently" - this is where Onavo fits [See "Optimization Announcements: Onavo Offers "3rd Party" Compression Service" - here].

Guy Rosen, Product Management Director, updates about the new service to Airtel subscriber, in Zambia:

"today we are introducing the Internet.org app to make the internet accessible to more people by providing a set of free basic services. With this app, people can browse a set of useful health, employment and local information services without data charges. By providing free basic services via the app, we hope to bring more people online and help them discover valuable services they might not have otherwise.

The Internet.org app will be available first to Airtel subscribers in Zambia [enabling] basic access to: AccuWeather, Airtel, eZeLibrary, Facebook, Facts for Life, Google Search, Go Zambia Jobs, Kokoliko, MAMA (Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action), Messenger, Wikipedia, WRAPP (Women’s Rights App). Zambia uReport
 

See "Introducing the Internet.org App" - here.

Facebook Acquires Onavo for $100M

Haaretz reports today that "Facebook, the world’s largest social network, has signed an agreement to acquire the Israeli startup Onavo for more than $100 million [other sources say $150M].

Onavo, the developer of an award-winning mobile utility app and the company behind Onavo Insights, made the announcement Monday morning to its employees and published a notice on its blog (see "We are joining the Facebook team" - here).

See: 

• Optimization Announcements: Onavo Offers "3rd Party" Compression Service -here
• Onavo CEO: We may Charge for our Data Optimization Service - here
• Optimization Market: Li Ka-shing and Motorola Invest in Onavo - here

See "Facebook buys Israeli startup Onavo for more than $100 million" - here.

Optimization Market: Li Ka-shing and Motorola Invest in Onavo

   

Tzahi Hoffman reports to Globes that "Onavo Mobile, which is developing an app to compress data on mobile phones, has raised $10 million in a series B funding round .. The fundraising round was led by Horizons Ventures, the private investment arm of Li Ka-shing together with Motorola Mobility Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of Motorola Mobility Inc".

Onavo (see "Optimization Announcements: Onavo Offers "3rd Party" Compression Service" - here) offers saving in data roaming services to iOS and Android devices, with yet to be announced business model (here). 

Nevertheless, the company sees MNOs as partners, and says that (here) ".. Onavo increases operators’ revenues from data roaming services by bringing down barriers to usage and by offering more flexible data roaming plans, without changing the existing inter-operator agreements".

See "Data compressing co Onavo Mobile raises $10m" - here.

Onavo CEO: We may Charge for our Data Optimization Service

 

Guy Rosen, Co-Founder & CEO of Onavo, the "3 rd party mobile data optimization service" (here) participated in a panel session during the Mobile 2012 conference held in Israel this week.

According to the report in the Calcalist news site (by Reut Miriam Cohen, here, Hebrew),  Mr. Rosen was asked about how Onavo is planning to generate revenues from the optimization service.

The answer was - "the possibilities are charging for the application download, advertizing during use, or selling services; for us, the third way is very suitable. We save people money, asking some in return makes sense. In the meantime this is free of charge"

Optimization Announcements: Onavo Offers "3rd Party" Compression Service

    

Onavo announced ".. an innovative new application, totally seamless and transparent. Once installed, you can go back to using your phone as normal. In the background, data usage from all apps is compressed, allowing users to double or even triple their existing data plan. Simply put, with Onavo, smartphone users can regain control of their data usage, understanding which apps are costing them and squeezing more out of every megabyte they download"

See "Onavo’s new app crunches data so users get more from their mobile" - here.

The company explains (here) that it works using an Onavo's cloud based server as a proxy server, and compresses downloaded (only) data  to Safari, Mail, Facebook, Google Maps, Twitter and other applications. The service, which is free for now, is going to be charged in the future.

Onavo's solution is a "3rd party" optimization solution and service. Similar solutions exist for long time from many optimization vendors (Bytemobile, Flash Networks, Vantrix, DiviNetworks, Mobixell), but require deployment by the operators (see an example here). As operators preferred to avoid the complexity of client based solutions, certain compression techniques (used by Onavo) could not be used, and optimization solutions are now focused on "one-sided" optimization of video content (which is not supported by Onavo).

Nevertheless, the company says that operators are "huge supporters of Onavo" however, unlike network based compression solutions operators may enjoy the congestion relief and less complaints to their help desks, but cannot charge customers for the actual volume consumed (hence the saving to the end-user).