The number of new internet users soared
after Reliance Industries launched Jio in 2016,
offering cheap smartphones and even cheaper
data prices. Jio now has more than 388 million
cellphone and data services subscribers.
Mukesh Ambani, Reliance’s head and India’s richest
man, said that he is “humbled” to have Facebook
as a long-term partner, and that the investment will
help propel India’s digital push forward.
“The synergy between Jio and Facebook will
help realize Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s
‘Digital India’ Mission,” he said, referring to a
government program to make life and business
more efficient in the country.
Facebook and its instant messaging platform
WhatsApp are popular in India, which with its
1.3 billion people has the most Facebook users
in the world. China, with a population of 1.4
billion, mostly blocks access to Facebook and
other non-Chinese social media.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, said he hopes
to give India’s 60 million small businesses the
digital tools they need to grow.
“With communities around the world in
lockdown, many of these entrepreneurs
need digital tools they can rely on to find and
communicate with customers and grow their
businesses,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
In February, WhatsApp also got the green light to
roll out its digital payments platform – WhatsApp
Pay – in India, after two years of trying.
The approval came after the Reserve Bank of
India and National Payments Corporation of
India gave the company a nod to launch the
payment platform in a phased manner.