Facebook's investment in Jio brings over the partnership between Airtel and Google
- Published | 29 April 2020
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel and
Google Cloud have announced a collaboration offering G Suite to small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMBs) in India as part of their integrated portfolio
of information and communication technologies.
By expanding the scope of digital networks
across a ready-to-tape market, Reliance Jio's investment and collaboration with
the likes of Facebook and Microsoft could give it a head start over
Airtel-Google collaboration.
Global social media and digital advertising
company Facebook announced investments in Jio Platforms Limited, part of
Reliance Industries Limited, amounting to $5.7 billion or some 43,574 crore.
Web thus becomes the biggest minority shareholder.
The target audience is the 60 million odd
small businesses across the country that are the fabric of the unorganized
retail economy.
Facebook, said in a statement, will create
new ways for people and companies to work more effectively in the growing
digital economy through collaboration with Jio. Bringing JioMart, the small
business initiative of Jio, together with WhatsApp, will allow people to
interact with companies, shop and eventually buy products in a seamless mobile
experience.
According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg,
with communities around the world in a shutdown, many of these entrepreneurs
need digital resources that they can use to find and connect with consumers to
grow their business.
In earlier 2020, telecom operator Bharti
Airtel and Google Cloud announced a collaboration to deliver G Suite as part of
its integrated portfolio of information and communication technology to small
and medium-sized enterprises (SMBs) in India. G Suite is a series of smart
applications — Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar and more — designed with real-time
communication and artificial intelligence to bring people together and help
them function in a smarter and healthier manner.
This partnership provided both companies
with a forum to tap growth opportunities in India, which ranks among the
fastest growing economies and has the world's second-highest number of internet
users. Airtel serves more than 2,500 big corporations and more than 500,000
SMBs and technology startups throughout India.
Reliance Jio announced a 10-year deal with
Microsoft in 2019 to help the operator build a network of large data centers
across India. The tech giant will deploy its Azure cloud platform to enable
offerings in these centers.
In April 22 2020 Jio also announced that it
would provide free start-ups with the integrated cloud-Microsoft software
infrastructure and a monthly fee of 1,500 for micro, small and medium-sized
enterprises.
Airtel for its part, through this
collaboration, gives Google possible access to more than 2,500 large
corporations and more than 5,000 small businesses. Microsoft historically has
wide company presence in the region. Google has a presence in the B2C market,
as Android smartphones are prevalent.
The telecom rivalry in India is
supplemented by a larger rivalry with major tech firms such as Amazon, Facebook
and Google also seeking to set a lead in taping the largest open market for
internet users. Although the B2C advertisement market directly to consumers has
its drawbacks, both in terms of the company that can be monitored and the
users' personal information that can be exchanged, a B2B approach through small
and medium-sized businesses would give tech companies exposure to hyperlocal
activity trends throughout the world.
Recent investments in start-ups across
artificial intelligence or AI, e-governance and regional language platforms
only increase this competition, setting the stage for a big tech battle across
the Internet ecosystem in India.
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