Facebook buys 10% of Reliance Jio during Pandemic

Facebook Inc. and Reliance are one of the most advanced companies in the digital world. Jio was launched in September 2016 and is owned by India’s richest man, Mr. Mukesh Ambani. Reliance created a network ranging from mobile telecoms and home broadbands to E-commerce named Jio. Whereas, Facebook Inc. is the largest social media platform established by Mr. Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook and Reliance Jio collaboration hit the headlines on Wednesday 22nd April 2020. Facebook Inc. announced that Reliance took a deal of $5.7 billion (Rs 43,574 crore) investment from Facebook in return for a 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms and Facebook became the largest minority shareholder. This deal will revolutionize the digital doors worldwide. Although Reliance Jio and Facebook Inc. collaborated, both companies will continue to be independent entities with their independent business models and will likely compete in areas aligned with their collaborated business models and services.

● The synergy of Reliance Jio and Facebook

The synergy between Reliance Jio and Facebook will accomplish Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi’s footprints of ‘Digital India’ which has two main missions ‘Ease of living’ and ‘Ease of doing business’. The investment made by the social giant marks as a “commitment to India” with a complete focus on Jio platforms to create new opportunities for people and businesses to perform more effectively and efficiently in expanding the digital economy. The partnership between world-class digital connectivity tycoon ‘Jio’ and intimate relationship platform ‘Facebook’ will offer updated and innovative solutions to everyone in this tech world to empower, enable and enrich all the fellow citizens. Facebook is all ready to set the horses in this opportunity.

● Reasons for collaboration and its impacts

Facebook Inc. runs messaging application Whatsapp and controls social media platforms Instagram and Facebook. On the other side, Jio has major digital access. Also, according to the statistics, India has the highest number of WhatsApp users around 400 million people and according to consultancy PwC number of internet users is expected to reach 850 million in 2022. Amidst the pandemic of Covid-19 two-way advantages can be embarked: driving the digital transformation and to regulate the economy. The first thing that is…