At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this morning, Facebook announced Facebook Zero, a new stripped-down mobile version of the popular social networking site. Zero, which will go live within the next few weeks, will allow users on slow connections and basic phones to access the service through a very basic version of the site. By default, Zero will not feature any images or other bandwidth-heavy features. Facebook also plans to offer a more feature-rich version of Facebook Zero through deals with select mobile carriers.
Given that over 100 million Facebook users now access the service’s mobile site, it makes sense for the company to try to cater to the widest possible variety of potential users.
With Facebook Lite, the company already offers a very basic version of its service for desktop users on slow connections. This version is mainly aimed at users in the developing world.
If you try to go to zero.facebook.com right now, this message will appear: Sorry, your carrier does not support zero.facebook.com. As Robin Wauters notes, chances are that Facebook plans to offer carriers the most basic version of Zero for free. Mobile operators will be able to charge for the premium version. It’s not clear if Facebook plans to take a cut of these fees.