Facebook and Jio Deal decoded

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Just imagine of an old school kirana store in your area. It currently uses pen and paper for billing, accepts payments only in cash etc.
You can barely find it on google Maps forget having a website of its own.
The baniya is not going to answer your calls nor can you ask for a home delivery during the peek hours of the day.


But what if our favorite Mr. Ambani comes and does his magic?
Well he probably just swung his magic wand! And well this time he's not alone, he's got a friend from the US.


A few days ago, Reliance Jio and Facebook announced how they were going to disrupt the retail market (just how the Ambanis like ;)). Well don't worry he's not handing out free packets of sooji or something.


Well coming to business,
Facebook Inc. purchased a 9.99% stake in Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. for a whopping $66 Billion.
Facebook is ruling the social media industry with 30 crore users on FB, 40 crore users of WhatsApp and around 9 crore users of Instagram in India alone. 


Jio entered the telecom game in 2016 and changed the rules of the game. Not only did Jio acquire a majority share in the industry but also manged to get themselves a sweet 40 crore user base, largest for many telecom industry in India and second largest in the world. 


So as far as the Indian market goes, these two are the sweethearts for us, as most Indians sleep by messaging on WhatsApp and wake up with a good morning forward on WhatsApp and not to forget, all of this on the free data provided by Jio.


Jio has since then tried a lot of ventures but hasn't exactly been very successful in them.
We are all well aware how Jio wants to enter the retail and e-commerce game as well. In order to do so Jio launched something known as the Jio Mart.
Also, in the middle of all of this let's not forget that Mukesh Ambani had promised the shareholders to mark Reliance a NET Debt free company and has had several attempts to do that. Be it selling a 20% stake to Saudi Aramco (bringing INR 1.14 lakh crores) for or even this deal with Facebook. 


Coming to Facebook, its aim to become an internet monopoly was clearly visible when it launched Free Basics in 2016 which we managed to ban and keep our internet neutral.
But it is of prime importance for Mr. Zuckerburg to take care of the country holding the largest user base for his products.
Since then, WhatsApp tried to get a license for WhatsApp pay but couldn't manage one due to a lot statutory hurdles. This was going to become a very big source of revenue for WhatsApp.
Well thats when both the zillionaires decided to join hands. 


In an attempt to capture the grocery delivery and then entering the retail sector as well Jio and Facebook have a master plan ready.
Just like the dabbawalas, kirana stores have been the most hyperlocal network that we Indians are proud of.


Jio and Facebook are working on developing a system wherein the users can place orders to the nearest kirana stores using WhatsApp.
This would be a major win for WhatsApp if it can get itself the WhatsApp Pay license too, for Jio to enter the retail industry and also for Modiji to empower the SMEs and 3 crore small kirana shops to transact digitally.


Well this partnership may take Jeff Bezos' Amazon for a ride as it becomes a big competition for Amazon in the race to become the largest online retail store. Replacing the A to Z in Amazon for 'A'mbani and 'Z'uckerberg. 


WhatsApp Pays success in the B2C payment space in India too means a serious threat to likes of Paytm, Google Pay, Phone Pe etc.


Well despite businesses being down and world economies were having a bloodbath, the glamor of the Ambanis could not shy away. 

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