In its journey towards bringing cheap and accessible internet to the world, Facebook just acquired another company called Pryte.
Pryte – “Profit-from-every-byte” – is a small mobile data plan company based in Finland. What they try to do is offer app-specific internet plans to mobile subscribers in underdeveloped parts of the world where internet is expensive. So rather than pay for monthly data plans they can’t afford, and probably won’t use up, they can pay for access to apps in usage terms they can understand. Say for example, “3 hours of Facebook chat”, “3 articles on TechCabal”, or something like that. Prtye achieves this by collaborating jointly with local telcos, app developers and content owners alike.
The financial terms on which the deal was sealed are undisclosed and it is not clear if all of Pryte’s 30-member team will be joining Facebook. If Facebook’s acquisition history has taught us anything, Prtye will probably be restructured to focus on Facebook-only data plans.
