Facebook invests $5.7B in Indian carrier Jio
Facebook has announced it has invested $5.7 billion in Jio Platforms, part of the wider portfolio of the Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries. According to a blog post by the social media, the major reason behind the deal that made Facebook the largest minority shareholder is to combine JioMart and WhatsApp powers to “enable people to connect with businesses, shop and ultimately purchase products in a seamless mobile experience”.
Facebook shared this image of a family, using WhatsApp to reach new customers for its textile business
Having an IM platform go beyond its chat capabilities is no news in the mobile world. The Chinese giant Tencent is the owner of WeChat - a massive platform that allows over a billion users to communicate, purchase online or even make offline payments.
Facebook investing in the Indian market is no surprise - WhatsApp currently has over 400 million users in the country. David Fischer, Chief Revenue Officer, and Ajit Mohan, VP and Managing Director in India, revealed some numbers - in less than four years, Jio has brought more than 388 million people online, and in just the past five years over half a billion of people have gained access to internet.
Reader comments
- OwnFix3
- gMK
Looks who's giving a lecture on ignorance. Do you know what's important than bytes of data. Life! And that includes animals too!
- OwnFix3
- gMJ
I don't care about such things. My time is much more precious and I better utilise on important aspects of life.
- Adi
- rxh
If facebook moves to get a majority of Jio , then it will be the end for privacy and security of jio users and many will move to another provider , which in this case is Airtel and Voda-Idea. Jio is lot better than those as of now, but might not be t...
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