Facebook to get 9.9% stake in Reliance’s Jio Platform for Rs 43,574 crore.
Jio Platforms houses Reliance’s music, TV and cinema streaming services. It also includes a high-speed mobile network that has signed up 388 million customers in less than four years and made mobile data much cheaper in India than it used to be.
Reaching Jio’s users might interest Facebook, which attempted and failed to expand its free internet initiative, Free Basics, in India.
Along with the investment, Jio Platforms, Reliance Retail Limited and WhatsApp have also entered into a commercial partnership agreement to further accelerate Reliance Retail’s New Commerce business on the JioMart platform using WhatsApp and to support small businesses on WhatsApp by, for example, configuring WhatsApp as a communication channel between companies and users via JioMart, an electronic commerce platform.
Whatsapp’s payment system finally secured regulatory approval, in February 2020, for a phased roll out after two years of regulatory hurdles since its trial run.
In the future, Facebook and Reliance might possibly look to embed a variety of online services together along the lines of what WeChat has done in China, where Facebook is shut out.
IFF has put out a short statement here. What are your thoughts on Facebook’s investment in Jio?
Reaaly is it a new ploy by FB to start with smthng like freebasics anew albeit in a diff pakage but backed by the strong experience of Reliance in the power corridors and probably a better PR team with a sound understanding of the market and with the backing of news media it has??
Concerns have been highlighted by our supporters on zero-rating plans and wider net neutrality protections. Zero-rating (pricing distortion) is prohibited by clear regulation, but the actual implementation of the framework remains largely non-existent.
Hi,
Yes but is there a slight chance that in near future given the right pressure and with the advent of 5G things could get sketchy and possibly a partial rollback of these regulations could take place?i am taking into consideration 2 things
if i remember correctly there were some concerns about 5G and NN.Correct me if i am wrong here.
also the fact about laws in india being moreover on paper than on the ground although i agree its more to do with the NN inplementation which was recently in consultation stage.
Please dont get me wrong but a bit concerned seeing one crook buying into another.