Inside the Self-Serving 'Philanthropy' of Amazon, Facebook and Google

Technology companies tend to couch their products not as businesses for profit, but as gifts to humanity.

The HBO comedy "Silicon Valley" so thoroughly mocked this impulse that I heard companies in the valley ordered their spokespeople to stop using the phrase "making the world a better place."

For the biggest tech giants, faux philanthropy masks an obvious customer acquisition strategy.

Making the world a more literate place

Amazon said a billion people in the world have no access to books. That's why the company recently pledged to donate more Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets and Kindle eBooks to developing countries, in an effort to make the world a better place by expanding readership and promoting literacy.