Facebook为员工推出“2G星期二”

Facebook为员工推出“2G星期二”

Facebook表示生活在欠发达国家的不少人仍在使用极慢速的2G网络。他们需要了解世界各地的人们如何使用不同的网络连接使用Facebook，以便为用户建立最好的平台。为了真实感受用户体验，2G网速真的来了。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

sacrifice 牺牲

simulate 模拟

mimic 模仿的

emerging 新兴的

neutrality 中立

infancy 摇篮时期

Facebook goes slow with ‘2G Tuesdays' for developers（550words）

By Hannah Kuchler in San Francisco and James Crabtree in Mumbai

Facebook is encouraging its employees to sacrifice speedy internet connections and experience the stumbling 2G more common in emerging markets,with the introduction of “2G Tuesdays”.

Staff at Facebook's plush Silicon Valley campus,accustomed to being ferried to and from the office in WiFi-enabled buses,are being asked to experience slow connection speeds to help “build a better product for all of the people using[Facebook's app]”.

On “2G Tuesdays”,employees are sent notifications giving them the option to have their mobile phones simulate a 2G connection to help them understand how to develop the Facebook app to make it easier to use on a poor internet connection.

“People are coming online at a staggering rate in emerging markets and,in most cases,are doing so on mobile via 2G connections. But on the lower end of 2G networks,it can take about two minutes to download a webpage,” says Facebook. “We need to understand how people use Facebook in different internet connections in all parts of the world so we can build the best experience for them.”

The social network's attempts to redesign its products for users with slower connections mimic moves by other global tech companies seeking growth in countries such as India. Google,for instance,has launched a low-speed version of its search service and an offline function for video site YouTube.

Facebook is seeking to bring more people in emerging markets online through its Internet.org programme,which provides 60 basic services and the social network to people in 19 countries for free,by striking deals with telecoms carriers who are betting the customers will start paying later.

But Internet.org has been criticised,particularly in India — which is fast becoming one of the social network's most important markets — for breaking the principle of “net neutrality” under which no web traffic is prioritised or treated differently.

The social network has fixed its sights on India,with its population of almost 1.3bn,about 10 per cent of whom use Facebook and many of whom use Facebook-owned WhatsApp for messaging. With no access to China,where the internet is closely monitored,India — to which Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg is paying a visit this week — is the company's largest potential market.

Facebook's internal estimates suggest India will overtake the US as its largest market by users in the next 18 months,and research group eMarketer projects that it will reach 200m users there by 2017,having surpassed 100m early last year.

However,analysts say Facebook faces challenges earning money from its huge user bases in countries such as India,where digital advertising is in its infancy and average revenue per user is far below mature markets such as the US and UK.

“In India,the usage outlook is strong but our ad revenue outlook is weak,” said Debra Aho Williamson of eMarketer. “Facebook's ad revenue in the country is likely quite low,reflecting the immature state of the digital ad business.”

Mr Zuckerberg will host a town-hall meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday,taking questions from Indian Facebook users.

The Q&A session follows a visit last month by Narendra Modi,India's prime minister,to Facebook's Silicon Valley headquarters,where he participated in a similar session where the public asked questions on everything from Facebook to pollution in New Delhi.