Marc Andreessen just offended 1B Indians with a single tweet (opens in new tab)

I have a great respect for Marc Andreessen who have invested in great tech companies at early stage and they are part of my daily life. I have learnt a lot by reading his essays and his bullet points in twitter about startups and building companies.

I'm not able to understand why he has to make this comment. He sits in Facebook board and recently TRAI had declined Facebook's Free Basics which violates Net Neutrality. Does this have anything to do with his comment?

India has been growing great in recent years and it's headed for enormous growth in next few decades. India has the largest youth population in the whole world and it can transform itself into a great super-power if it's run by great politicians and put India back in track.

- The British East India Company was the original Free Basics. We all know how that ended.

I was just having a chat with a few people in a few Indian villages which got connected to internet in last 1-2 years. A few of my observations:

1. They think FB/Whatsapp is NOT internet. Internet is meant to be accessed through browser. So we already have an illusioned world.

2. 'Internet' is only meant for the elite.

3. Whatsapp/FB serve the same purpose that text messages did. They use FB/Whatsapp to save on cost of sending sms.

4. Their biggest issue is that they don't have jobs. Cities are very far away. The ONLY employment opportunity available to young people (including college graduates) is farming!!

5. I tried to quiz them on how FB/Whatsapp has helped in creating jobs/economic activity/improving farming. Couldn't get a lot of answers. (not saying FB cannot help)

6. They can afford to pay for cheap data packs to get access to FB/Whatsapp (about $2-4 per month). All the young people in the villages have Whatsapp/smart phones. Although this may not stand for the poorest of the poor.

It is going to be very hard to decide if banning free basics is going to create more jobs for the poor or not. But I think the basic premise of the regulator's decision is giving Indian startups a fair chance. The regulator is only trying to create a fair battle field for startups. The poor need Indian entrepreneurs more than anything else. The regulator is only trying to help entrepreneurship in India.

But one thing is clear, FB isn't being entirely altruistic (for obvious reasons), but the same cannot be said for Indian regulators. I believe the regulators have ONLY the interest of the people in mind.

Such an outrageous comment.kind of shows the mindset behind supporting such walled gardens in india compared to western countries because they think that we Indians are inferior and shud be content with what they give

Facebook wants to be a modern day AOL? Prodigy? Compuserve? There was another, think it began with a G.

I'll never forget how astounded people were when I showed them how to minimize the AOL window and get on the real internet.

besides poor choice of words, it's also about how ill-informed he is about this entire debate. It's obvious, he has only read what Facebook has fed him with. I am a huge fan of his work and views and hence wouldn't assign motive to this, but yes, sure he did piss people off, including his fan base.

Poorly phrased by pmarca, but seems certain he did not mean that India would be better off becoming a colony again. More likely he meant that some things associated with their successful anti-colonial efforts, such as "economic nationalism" and "license raj" have not worked out well for them. I don't know anything about Free Basics, so have no idea if it belongs in that category or not.

Indian here. pmarca is correct.

That is all.