Facebook takes $5.7 billion stake in Indian internet giant Jio

&NewLine;<p>Facebook has made a huge bet on India by investing &dollar;5&period;7 billion into Jio Platforms&comma; the tech subsidiary of multinational conglomerate Reliance Industries&period; Jio variously operates broadband&comma; mobile services&comma; and online commerce platforms&comma; and Facebook’s investment gives it around a 10 percent stake in the company&comma; making it the largest minority shareholder&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Facebook’s primary footprint in India currently comes from its huge WhatsApp userbase&semi; more than 400 million Indians use the messaging app&comma; far more than any other country in the world&period; In a&nbsp&semi;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;about&period;fb&period;com&sol;news&sol;2020&sol;04&sol;facebook-invests-in-jio&sol;">blog post<&sol;a>&nbsp&semi;bylined by chief revenue officer David Fischer and VP for India Ajit Mohan&comma; the company says one of the goals of its investment is to tap into opportunities for small businesses&comma; noting that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;WhatsApp is so ingrained in Indian life that it has become a commonly used verb across many Indian languages and dialects&period;”<q>FACEBOOK AND JIO COULD BE BUILDING A &OpenCurlyQuote;SUPER-APP’<&sol;q><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;One focus of our collaboration with Jio will be creating new ways for people and businesses to operate more effectively in the growing digital economy&comma;” Fischer and Mohan write&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;For instance&comma; by bringing together JioMart&comma; Jio’s small business initiative&comma; with the power of WhatsApp&comma; we can enable people to connect with businesses&comma; shop and ultimately purchase products in a seamless mobile experience&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Last week&nbsp&semi;India’s&nbsp&semi;<em>Economic Times<&sol;em>&nbsp&semi;reported&nbsp&semi;that Facebook and Reliance were planning to leverage WhatsApp and Jio services to create a WeChat-style &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;super-app” for India&period; Tencent’s WeChat has massive penetration in China&comma; with more than a billion users and many small businesses using it for payments&comma; promotion&comma; and communication&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>WhatsApp’s reach in India is almost matched by Jio&comma; which proved hugely disruptive in the market by offering heavily discounted 4G plans well before competitors&period; The company has &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;brought more than 388 million people online&comma;” according to Facebook’s blog post&period; Facebook has attempted to get into providing internet access in India before&comma; though its ill-conceived Free Basics program was ultimately&nbsp&semi;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;theverge&period;com&sol;2016&sol;2&sol;8&sol;10913398&sol;free-basics-india-regulator-ruling">banned<&sol;a>&nbsp&semi;for violating net neutrality&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are excited about furthering our investment in India’s vibrant digital economy&comma;” Fischer and Mohan write&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Our efforts with Jio will be focused on opening new doors and fueling India’s economic growth and the prosperity of its people&period; We look forward to working with Jio&comma; and to future collaborations in India to advance this vision&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong><em>News Source&colon;<&sol;em><&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi;<strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;theverge&period;com&sol;2020&sol;4&sol;21&sol;21230643&sol;facebook-reliance-jio-investment-stake-whatsapp">THE VERGE<&sol;a><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><em>Featured image for representation&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;