Kingdom Jio: Ambani’s fourth kid
“Data is the New Oil” — Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, RIL
The liberalization of 1991 was a turnaround for the telecom sector in India. The long sown monopoly of BSNL got dominated by the private players that took birth.
Airtel, Idea, and Tata Indicom eyed the 96.39 crores Indians in 1995. This country with an exponential population would have been a haven for them if a quondam petrol pump assistant in Yemen had not rolled his dice.
Dhirubhai Ambani started Reliance Communications in 2002, with a way-out marketing campaign, acquiring a substantial market share. Mukesh Ambani (his elder son) developed a fellow-feeling for the telecom sector. He steered Rcom through the oligopoly, with strategies unanticipated by the competitors and carving a beautiful road ahead, but a feud with his younger brother (Anil Ambani) separated him from his love in 2005.
Mukesh Ambani finally made a breakthrough in the telecom sector in 2014 with a company that would become a pioneer of ‘Digital India’.
Hermes, as the Greeks would call it.
Ambani called it, Jio.
After acquiring the 4G rights, Reliance invested nearly $35billion. While the existing providers modified the same 2G/3G towers, Reliance set up new towers with the capability of offering 5G and 6G in the future. Unlike other providers, Jio made calling free and provided high-quality data at 1/10th prices that exploded its sales in a manner, not even its fervid supporters would have imagined.
Jio was in a $6.5B debt, however, what it created was the largest 4G-LTE only data network in the world. In the data consumption rankings, India jumped from 155 to 1.
A big stride for Digital India? Yes.
Jio has been expanding its operations since then. With a vision of creating a platform that caters to all demands of a layman. On Jio’s application suite you will find options for entertainment, payments/security, and daily content. Covers all you need, right?… Well, almost.
Last month, twelve foreign giants invested nearly $15.2 billion in Ambani’s telecom carrier.
Jio bagged the support of the world player Facebook and the world’s richest company, the Oil God, Saudi Aramco. Jio’s proven execution, a nearly debt-free capital structure, and being on the right side of the legislation is what sets Jio apart. Investors dream of a day when customers will talk, shop, order food, bank, read, write, watch movies, and listen to songs on a Jio app. A deal with Facebook gives Jio a chance of monetizing its 360-million strong user base.
What pans out if you have such brand equity? Your marketing cost is zero.
JioMeet was launched recently with the same user interface as Zoom. It offers unlimited high definition calls for free, unlike Zoom that offers only an hour of calling at a time for free users.
“Don’t set sail using someone else’s star”, says an African proverb.
Nonetheless, with an Indian alternative to all-time high video calling app Zoom amidst the “Aatmanirbhar” fervor, Reliance can emerge as a major technological disruptor in India.
Ambani plans on listing Jio and Reliance’s retail services in the stock market in the coming year which would mark a milestone of his tireless expansions since 2016.
However, Jeff Bezos’s Amazon, expanding operations across sectors, might be a bullet to dodge for Jio.
But for all we know now, RIL’s stock price doubled in 59 trading sessions and wiped off its $21 billion debt in 2 months.
And,
Mukesh Ambani is the Richest Asian.
