With Jio having a subscriber base of 388 million and Whatsapp having more than 400 million users in the country, their combined partnership is about to connect small business and consumers
On Wednesday, the social media giant Facebook Inc. agreed to buy 9.9% stake in Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Platforms Limited for ₹43,574 crores. The buying would require regulatory approvals from Competition Commission of India. This deal is being touted as the biggest strategic deal by a technology company anywhere in the world.
With Jio having a subscriber base of 388 million and Whatsapp having more than 400 million users in the country, their combined partnership is about to connect small business and consumers.
The move is also set to give some elbow room for Reliance Industries that has a staggering debt pile.
Facebook’s move at a time when the global economy is under the “Great Lockdown” gives out a message that India is bound to emerge from the crisis and embrace digitization at a never seen before pace.
“At the core of our partnership is the commitment that Mark Zuckerberg and I share for the all-round digital transformation of India”, Mukesh Ambani said in a video message.
“The country is in the middle of a major digital transformation, and organizations like Jio have played a big part in getting hundreds of millions of Indian people and small businesses online,” Zuckerberg wrote in his Facebook post.