Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of online non-profit encyclopaedia Wikipedia, has said that the huge growth in the use of mobile devices can be utilized to promote ethical business.
Wales recently announced that he had joined The People's Operator (TPO) phone network,where ten percent of a customer's bill goes to the charity of their choice. Furthermore, 25 percent of the company's profits will also be donated to charity.
"You do exactly what you always do: just use your phone, it costs the same as anybody else, but instead of us spending part of your money on TV commercials, we give it to a cause you care about," he told CNBC.
(Read more: 5 minutes with a visionary: Jimmy Wales)
TPO was launched in November 2012 in Tech City in East London, and Wales said he wants to expand the network's customer base outside of the U.K. He said that the company was "ready to go big."
(Read more: Why 2014 is 'tipping point' for Internet: Marissa Mayer)
"Our rates are as low as anybody's, so how do we do that? Well, we have to have very, very low marketing spend, so it has to spread by word-of-mouth and virally online, which is something that I know a little bit about," Wales said.
Spreading the word regarding TPO was why Wales was at the World Economic Forum this year in Davos. He said he was looking at making some deals and forming some charity partnerships.
"I've probably spoken to a dozen Telco CEOs while I'm here," Wales said. "That's something you can only do that at Davos."
Marissa Mayer, chief executive of Yahoo, told Davos on Wednesday that 2014 will be a "tipping point" for the evolution of the Internet. "By the end of this year we (Yahoo) will have more mobile traffic than PC traffic," she said.
Wales agreed with Mayer's prediction: "Mobile is having an enormous impact (in the developing world) as the next billion people come online," he said. "They're coming online on mobile devices; it's going to completely transformative."
—By CNBC's Kiran Moodley. Follow him on Twitter @kirancmoodley
