????上個月有幾周，形勢似乎一目了然：Facebook將收購遠距離太陽能無人機制造商泰坦航空（Titan Aerospace），利用后者的技術，向世界偏遠地區提供網絡服務。此舉表面上是為了應對谷歌（Google）利用熱氣球作為網絡基站的Project Loon項目。這個項目可能使谷歌，而不是Facebook，獲得十億新增互聯網用戶。

????然而如今的局勢卻令人費解。最后是谷歌、而不是Facebook，收購了泰坦航空，而Facebook則收購了另一家位于英國的太陽能無人機新創企業——Ascenta。至于說谷歌和Facebook這兩家硅谷巨頭未來會怎么利用新獲得的無人機技術？尚不清楚。不過，有一點很清楚：雖然向全球偏遠地區提供網絡連接對Facebook和谷歌都有利，但兩大巨頭爭相收購無人機技術，圖的絕不只有這么一點。至于說它們圖的到底是什么，那就比較難判斷了。

????Lux Research研究總監馬克?邦杰說：“大家必須把它看成更廣泛的經營戰略的一部分。谷歌與Facebook正在爭奪戰略制高點——亞馬遜（Amazon）顯然也在這樣做。我認為，對于無人機技術將在哪個領域起重要作用，他們有很多想法。但眼下，誰也沒辦法準確判斷究竟會是哪個領域。換言之，他們不知道無人機技術究竟將應用于什么領域，但他們知道自己必須參與其中。”

????Facebook的動機很簡單：跟隨戰略。多年來，競爭對手谷歌一直在致力于通過Project Loon項目，為世界偏遠地區提供網絡連接。這個項目利用高空飛行的氣球上懸掛的互聯網樞紐，為新西蘭沒有網絡連接的地區提供帶寬。邦杰表示，Facebook涉足商業化無人機技術并不是什么破天荒的舉動，而僅僅是照葫蘆畫瓢。

????邦杰說：“谷歌一直致力于研發無人駕駛汽車，還收購了智能家居公司Nest。假如大家僅僅只是把谷歌看成搜索引擎公司的話，它的這些舉動不免令人驚訝，不過如今應該沒有人這樣看了。”Facebook知道，如果它想在方興未艾的物聯網中保持重要地位，它需要擴展到軟件領域之外，進軍硬件產業。而無人機就是一個切入點。

????無人機也是繞過移動運營商的一種方式，而在部分發展中國家，正是運營商給Facebook造成了一些麻煩，尤其是在某些國家，Facebook試圖談判“零費率”方案，使客戶能使用Facebook的一些產品，而不會對他們的手機上網流量產生影響。如果Facebook真的徹底完成通過自有互聯網無人機連接十億新增互聯網用戶的宏偉計劃，它將不僅能繞過那些不合作的移動運營商，而且能推動這些新用戶使用Facebook的產品，比如它最近收購的通訊應用程序WhatsApp。

????For a few weeks last month, it seemed clear enough: Facebook (FB) would acquire the long-range solar-powered drone maker Titan Aerospace and use its technology to deliver Internet to remote areas of the world. It was ostensibly a hedge against Google's balloon-driven Project Loon and the possibility that Google (GOOG), rather than Facebook, would connect the "next billion" Internet users.

????Today that picture is opaque at best. Google -- not Facebook -- is buying Titan Aerospace, and Facebook has acquired a different U.K.-based solar-powered drones startup called Ascenta. And an answer to the question of how exactly the two Silicon Valley giants will leverage their new technology? Still elusive. What is clear is that while delivering connectivity to far-flung parts of the globe is advantageous for both Facebook and Google, the race to acquire unmanned aerial systems, or UAS, technology is about much more.

????Exactly what, well, that's more difficult to discern.

????"You definitely have to look at it as part of a broader business strategy," says Mark Bünger, research director at Lux Research. "The two of them are shooting for the strategic high ground here -- Amazon is obviously doing this, too. I think they have a lot of ideas for what it's going to be important for, but I think right now anyone would have a hard time accurately saying what that's going to be. In other words, they don't know exactly what it's going to be for, they just know that it's important that they're there."

????For Facebook, the incentive is simple: catch up. Rival Google has been developing a means to provide Internet connectivity to remote regions of the world for years now through Project Loon, which uses Internet hubs suspended from high-flying balloons to provide bandwidth to areas of New Zealand that are off the wired grid. Facebook isn't breaking new ground by getting into commercialized drone technology, Bünger says, just keeping up.

????"Google has been working on the autonomous vehicles, the Nest acquisition, and a bunch of other stuff that's surprising if you think of them as a search engine company -- which hopefully nobody does anymore," Bünger says. Facebook knows that if it wants to remain a major presence in the emerging Internet of things, it will need to extend beyond software and into hardware. Drones are one means of doing so.

????UAS are also a means of bypassing mobile carriers, which have given Facebook some trouble in parts of the developing world, particularly where the company has attempted to negotiate "zero-rate" deals that allow customers to use some of Facebook's offerings without it counting against their data plans. If Facebook does follow through with its ambitious plans to connect the next billion people through Facebook-owned Internet drones, Facebook can not only bypass mobile carriers that don't want to play ball, but also push those new users toward Facebook offerings like its recently acquired messaging app What'sApp.