Facebook Partners with Reliance Jio: India is in the middle of “major digital transformation” and Facebook is committed to “opening commerce opportunities for people across the country”, founder Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday morning, a day after the social media giant invested $5.7 billion in Reliance Industries Ltd-owned mobile telecom company Reliance Jio.
Mr. Zuckerberg (valued at $63.3 billion by business publication Forbes), also thanked Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani (valued at $47.5 billion) for the partnership and said he was “looking forward to getting started”.
Here’s what Facebook CEO said about the Facebook-Jio deal:
There’s a lot going on in the world right now, but I wanted to share an update on our work in India. Facebook is teaming up with Jio Platforms — we’re making a financial investment, and more than that, we’re committing to working together on some major projects that will open up commerce opportunities for people across India.
India is home to the largest communities on Facebook and WhatsApp and a lot of talented entrepreneurs. The country is in the middle of a major digital transformation and organizations like Jio have played a big part in getting hundreds of millions of Indian people and small businesses online.
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. With communities around the world in lockdown, many of these entrepreneurs need digital tools they can rely on to find and communicate with customers and grow their businesses. This is something we can help with — and that’s why we’re partnering with Jio to help people and businesses in India create new opportunities – said, Facebook owner.
I want to thank Mukesh Ambani and the entire Jio team for their partnership. We’re looking forward to getting started.
Also, In his message, Mr. Ambani stressed on the benefits of the Facebook-Jio tie-up for the nearly three crores Kirana stores around the country that will now be “empowered and can create new employment opportunities with digital technology”.
