Facebook says it plans to invest $5.7 billion in
India’s telecom giant Reliance Jio.
The investment will give Facebook a 9.99%
stake in Jio Platforms, the digital technologies
and app developing division of Reliance
Industries. Reliance Jio has the highest number
of customers in the country, and plans to roll out
an e-commerce business using WhatsApp.
“India is a special country for Facebook,”
Ajit Mohan, Facebook’s India head, wrote
in an online post highlighting India’s digital
transformation as one of the main reasons for
the investment.
India is one of the world’s fastest growing
internet markets, with the number of users
forecast to grow to 907 million by 2023,
according to a report by Cisco issued in February.