Facebook to acquire 10% stake in India’s telco giant, Reliance

Social media giant Facebook is in talks with India’s top telco Reliance Jio to acquire 10 per cent stake in a multi billion dollar deal.

Reliance Jio’s valuation sits a little over $60 billion. It has more than 370 million subscribers,

The company would be Facebook’s door into the Indian market after the failure of its free internet initiative, Free Basics, in India. Facebook however has a horse in the internet game in India with Express Wi-Fi, however its market share is negligible.

Related article: India’s Reliance Jio telco’s calls-over-Wi-Fi feature is ready for use

Reliance Jio, owns a music streaming service JioSaavn, on-demand live television service JioTV and payments service JioPay.

Facebook hopes to tap into Jio’s huge subscriber base to expand its digital presence in India. Futher, Jio is aligns with Facebook’s goal of providing internet access to all where in 3 years it has captured about 35 per cent of the Indian market.

Reliance Jio, which is owned by Indian billionaire, Mukesh Ambani: India’s richest man, climbed into market dominance offering users high-speed 4G data at throwaway prices along with free voice call for 6 months.

Earlier this year, Reliance Industries announced JioMart, a joint venture between Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail, the nation’s largest retail chain, to soft-launch an e-commerce business.