Digital coloniality and ‘Next Billion Users’: the political economy of Google Station in Nigeria

ABSTRACT

About half of the world’s population is not connected to the Internet, and only 39% of the 1.2 billion Africans are Internet users. For technology corporations, such as Google, the unconnected represents potential market that needs to be reached. Google launched the ‘Next Billion Users’ project targeting the unconnected billions, and established ‘Google Station’, a service provided in conjunction with telecom partners to provide free WiFi service in public spaces in few developing countries. Through a critical theoretical articulation of digital coloniality, this paper examines the political economic rationale of Google’s ‘Google Station’ in Nigeria. It exposes the market logic behind Google’s interest in Nigeria, examines the reactions of Nigerians to this ‘free’ access to the Internet and interrogates what this reveals about the culture of innovation and development in Africa. The paper calls for a decolonial thinking about technological development. Failure to do this, Africa will continue to rely on foreign capitalist actors whose intent is to mine the market potential of Africa, but often veiled in benevolent guise.

KEYWORDS:

• Google station
• next billion users
• digital coloniality
• free WiFi
• Nigeria

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Toks Dele Oyedemi (PhD University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA) engages critical sociological questions around media and communication. He examines social inequalities and communication, digital cultures and inequalities and the political economy of digital media. He is a co-editor of Social inequalities, media and communication and The praxis of social inequalities in media: A global perspective