The investment will help Reliance Jio get rid of its debt and grow its digital platforms with the help of social media giant

22-April-2020, 10:41 AM

Mumbai: Despite the ongoing bloodbath on Dalal Street, Oil-to-Retail conglomerate raked up 8% growth owing to the Facebook deal. Facebook has decided to invest 5.7Bn dollars (Approx. Rs 43574 Cr) to strengthen its foothold in India. India is Facebook INC’s biggest market owing to 400 Million Whatsapp users, 150 Million Instagram users and 300 million Facebook users.

Both companies have said in separate statements that this deal will generate commerce opportunities across India.

The main focus of the deal is to develop digital commerce platforms for small and medium businesses, Farmers, local grocery stores.

Concurrent with the investment, Jio Platforms, Reliance Retail and WhatsApp have also entered into a commercial partnership agreement to further accelerate Reliance Retail’s New Commerce business on the JioMart platform using WhatsApp and to support small businesses on WhatsApp.

“In the very near future, JioMart – Jio’s digital new commerce platform, and Whatsapp – will empower nearly 3 crore small Indian Kirana shops to digitally transact with every customer in their neighbourhood. This means all of you can order and get faster delivery of day-to-day items, from nearby local shops,” RIL Owner MukeshAmbani said in a Video Statement.

“This is especially important right now, because small businesses are the core of every economy and they need our support. India has more than 60 million small businesses and millions of people rely on them for jobs,” MarkZuckerberg, CEO, Facebook INC said in a Facebook post.