Facebook invested 5.7 Billion dollars for 9.99% stake in Jio

[parthm]

source1

source2:video

source3:whatsapp

 

Quote

It is spending $5.7 billion for a 9.99 percent stake in Jio Platforms, the tech subsidiary of India’s Reliance Industries. The investment—the single largest in Facebook’s history—is a giant bet on India’s online growth.

- source 1

 

So Facebook invested heavily in India which is really getting really scary now.

 

For those of you who aren't from India let me clear the situation up.

Jio (4g LTE cellular network) is owned by Reliance industries and the man at the top is Mukesh Ambani (guy in the video in source 2 )who's one of Asia's richest people.

He started Jio publicly in September 2016 and in 4 years already is India largest network operator with 370 million plus subscribers (3rd largest in the world)

He did this by basically destroying the competition by giving away totally free sim cards and charged nothing for LTE for around a year or more.

Because of him alone the LTE rates in India are cheap.

for eg. 

heres a monthly plan for jio 

2.61 USD gives you

1.5 GB data/day after that slower speed i.e 42GB/month

unlimited jio to jio calling

1000 minutes free

100 sms/day free

jio apps - free streaming apps with quite a lot of content. tv shows, music, among other things.

 

Back to Facebook now.

Facebook bought whatsapp a while back which currently has around 2 billion users and of those more than 400 million just in India.

- data from source 3

Whatsapp is everywhere in India.

 

Even the local grocery seller (not a shop) Whatsapps the price of veggies and you can buy them by replying. he will deliver those to your doorstep.

Facebook already tried digital payments with Whatsapp which failed badly.

The video in source 2 talks about integrating Whatsapp with Jio and allowing digital payments.

 

This has a HUGE potential. 

Jio is already at a position where it will dominate the network operator market. There are only 3 major players out of which one is on the verge of collapse (Vodafone India)

the combination of both Whatsapp and Jio is deadly as the customer base is already quite huge and may not even have many options to choose otherwise.

We all know Facebook cant be trusted at all.

I really fear giving such sensitive data to Facebook.

(This could be a wan show topic i don't know if there's a thread to post these topics somewhere so correct me if i'm wrong.)

 

[xAcid9]

Don't use the digital payment?

[parthm]

3 hours ago, xAcid9 said:

Don't use the digital payment?

Im not just talking about me.

Is it always as it seems with fb? digital payment integration is just one thing. As i said jio already has live tv and music competitors they probably will integrate everything. content gets locked and you cant always choose not to use something. With the covid thing going on and government pushing digital payment as going cashless its the right time to make a move.

this is the second time fb is trying something which could lead to privacy concerns. before this they tried to launch "free internet" which provided CERTAIN basic services for free which was denied permission due to citizens actually voting it down. As i said the network rates are pretty cheap due to the huge money bank jio has. if vodafone cant operate anymore then all new users will have to port to jio because the third network cant handle many customers when theyre barely able to operate. Jio is creating a monopoly and i dont trust the govenment. lets just say the owner of jio and the prime minister are good friends. The cyber laws in India arent up to date and all of these reasons i think are pretty valid for concern. Btw i use a jio sim myself so that doesnt help either

[Techstorm970]

India is looking like a place that many American businesses may move manufacturing and other things to in the wake of the pandemic.  (Apple has been looking into it for a year or two, actually.)  Third world country with over a billion people and high poverty and unemployment rates, so they'll love the jobs.  Plus, they're actually allied with the U.S., unlike China, so it's a safer setup.

 

They have their own set of problems as a country, but I'll take an informal caste system and Bollywood weirdness over USSR 2.0 any day.

[parthm]

10 hours ago, Techstorm970 said:

India is looking like a place that many American businesses may move manufacturing and other things to in the wake of the pandemic.  (Apple has been looking into it for a year or two, actually.)  Third world country with over a billion people and high poverty and unemployment rates, so they'll love the jobs.  Plus, they're actually allied with the U.S., unlike China, so it's a safer setup.

 

They have their own set of problems as a country, but I'll take an informal caste system and Bollywood weirdness over USSR 2.0 any day.

well thats obvious. america wants cheaper labour as always. Thats not the point of the post though. has facebook invested in other network operators? Where are they heading with this? isnt 5.7 billion is a lot to just integrate some apps ?

[Vector0102]

On 4/26/2020 at 12:25 PM, parthm said:

well thats obvious. america wants cheaper labour as always. Thats not the point of the post though. has facebook invested in other network operators? Where are they heading with this? isnt 5.7 billion is a lot to just integrate some apps ?

my guess is they just want more of people's private info, because the userbase of Jio is really large and its only increasing. As for the really heavy investment, i could see things like WhatsApp pay and other things related to facebook get things like data waivers for specific apps and stuff. (thats already happening for some streaming services in the States, correct me if im wrong)