Richard Branson Quotes

Five or ten years ago, when it was clear the Internet was becoming a mainstream phenomenon, it was equally clear that a lot of people were being left out and could be left behind.

Right now, 70 percent of the people don't have computers. And where they're needed most, people don't have them. We think this will enable anyone to own a computer. We're aiming at everybody who uses a computer as an information access device. The original idea was to build one cheaply enough to put one on every desk.

The Internet has not become the great leveller that it was once thought it could be.

While the technology revolution has yet to reach far into the households of those in developing countries, this is certainly another area where more developed countries can assist those in the less developed world.

I don't even want to guess at what computer literacy might do to children, except to say that if cyberspace is considered a place, then there are people who are already in it and people who are not in it.

If your kid doesn't have broadband access, that's a real disadvantage for participating in modern education.

Ordinary Chinese are also getting unprecedented access to information. More than half a billion Chinese now use the Internet.

The Internet has destroyed irony in the world, or at least wounded it considerably. What are we to do about an invention whose end result is that starving people in China are looking up things on marthastewart.com?

More and more of the world's population is gaining access to the same kind of computing power and connectivity that has transformed daily life for developed nations.

The Internet is an élite organization; most of the population of the world has never even made a phone call.

We must also promote global access to the Internet. We need to bridge the digital divide not just within our country. But among countries. Only by giving people around the world access to this technology can they tap into the potential. Of the information age.

Society always needs a level playing field. In order to do that, you have to have opportunity, and providing that opportunity begins with 'how do we bridge that gap,' that so-called Digital Divide? How can we get internet into every home possible?

Today we can only hear the voices and witness the imaginations of one-third of the world's people. We are all being robbed of the creativity and potential of the two-thirds of the world not yet online. Tomorrow, if we succeed, the Internet will truly represent everyone.

It's possible to live without the Web. It's not possible to live without water. But if you've got water, then the difference between somebody who is connected to the Web and is part of the information society, and someone who (is not) is growing bigger and bigger.

What we figured out was that in order to get everyone in the world to have basic access to the Internet, that's a problem that's probably billions of dollars. Or maybe low tens of billions. With the right innovation, that's actually within the range of affordability.

In many parts of the world, more people have access to a mobile device than to a toilet or running water.

The more broadband we can get globally, the better. It's better for the world; it's better for our advertisers; it's better for Google.

If we really just wanted to focus on making money, the first billion people who are already on Facebook have way more money than the next five or six billion people combined. It's not fair, but it's the way that it is. And, we just believe that everyone deserves to be connected, and on the Internet, so we're putting a lot of energy towards this.

Although I believe the Web has greatly increased the distribution of quality news, I do worry about those who don't have Internet access.

I was inspired by the Hole in the Wall project, where a computer with an internet connection was put in a Delhi slum. When the slum was revisited after a month, the children of that slum had learned how to use the worldwide web.

We're building what I call 'software apartheid.' We're in the process of creating a divided society: those who can use technology on one side, and those who can't on the other. And it happens to divide neatly along economic lines.

Globalization, as defined by rich people like us, is a very nice thing... you are talking about the Internet, you are talking about cell phones, you are talking about computers. This doesn't affect two-thirds of the people of the world.

We have the global scale, but not everyone has 4G in the world.

Technology can be a great equalizer when it comes to health care, education - to the point where rich, poor, middle class can all get the same benefits.

A family living at the poverty level is unlikely to be able to afford a computer at home. Even with a computer, access to the Internet is another significant expense. A child might borrow a book from a public library; but it is not possible to take a computer home.