Indian tech’s reliance on RelianceJio. Should SaaS investors take note?
Last week I was told that India is a country that lacks quality in Tech by some experienced Indians in tech. (I know right? the Irony).
How could someone, who is hired by a Tech company (hopefully for the quality and skills they offered) now comprehend and say India lacks quality so generally?
And the universe has spoken, well this time the stats were against that very statement and the said Indian tech came to be the talk of the global tech community, it with an announcement from Google, with a $10 Billion investment kitty.
Why invest in a country that lacks quality? that too, by one of the biggest tech companies in the world, announced by an Indian CEO ;) Sundar Pitchai. My Curry cousin brother! (No relation).
But enough jabs at the topic. Honestly in my last writeup on “Running a SaaS business is 4 times cheaper in India than in the US” which was a half-cooked analysis on the cost involved in starting a SaaS startup in India. But in my defense, I wanted to showcase the gist of the context. I would request the reader to read the fine prints before complaining.
So let’s get down and into THE KING of the topic here, and for legal purposes, I declare I haven’t been paid by the RIL groups for what I’m about to write here, and all of it is my personal opinions and not a paid analysis.
380 Million+ users are what the RelianceJio conglomerate has in their portfolio and their venture with Facebook, Qualcomm, and add to it some $4.5 Billion from Google and more investors, their presence will be potentially touching every single person in this vast country with one of their offerings for sure.
RIL is beginning to Single-handedly shape the digital face of India. Well, you don’t have to listen to me, this is what the global market is claiming them to achieve and with good reason behind it too since they have broken some quite big business records in India.
They’ve already conquered Retail, Oil & Gas, Healthcare, Media, Telecom, and whatnot. But they are yet to deliver on the quality that the experts demand in Tech and especially in SaaS.
I want to show a little focus in JioCloud, that’s right they have a foot on the door to Cloud space as well. Given not so popular as the other players but with an eye-watering user channel like Jio, which as I said earlier has a ready-made 380 Million+ user base that the company can promote to.
I’m not saying they’ll all adopt them for sure IMO not even half would, but the conversion/acquisition is still something that’ll be unheard of in the industry.
As they’re the sought after partners to penetrate Indian tech space. So yes, when it comes to RIL, it’s not about quality rather quantity, that’s right the metric businesses concentrate on in India is all directly related to taking leverage of the resource bed of consumerism.
But why Cloud? and what impact does it have on all the investment that’s flowing their way?
The answer is not an answer. To expand on that, we’ve been having a WhatsApp group where lots of banters happen, but now and then we talk tech and business. My uber-smart colleagues pointed out that the Power of RIL in India and how they’re slowly but surely, building an empire.
If you’re a millennial and if you follow anons, you would know about the Rothschilds and Rockefeller’s well they’re that kind of an empire but with a better humble beginning with very less dirt on their hands comparatively. Compared to all the other empires that ruled over us, I hope they’re one of the lesser evils.
Apart from the power they hold on other industries tech space, especially the cloud space needs an actual presence because you need to keep a hold of the data you’re generating. The JioCloud service in the JioPlatform is a partnered venture with Microsoft, who’s OneDrive hasn’t been successfully accepted as far as Google Drive in the Indian consumer market did and so it makes sense to partner with a local powerhouse.
One thing you must understand about SaaS or tech in general is, Partnership is extremely crucial to breaking into selective markets, especially if you don't have a local presence and who has a better network than the RIL family.
Indians are primed to be the biggest consumers in the coming decade, our conservative days are slowly vanishing, no thanks to the western culture and modern advancements we brought just to boost our egos up in front of the neighbors.
But its too soon to say if its turn in the right direction. A very mixed economy like ours needs more time and growth as a nation to see what the shareholders want and what segment they’ll be looking to monetize or should I say capitalize. My guess is that they’ll start with data (New Oil). It is the most precious, difficult, and volatile digital commodity to procure or own in 2020.
India do not have regulation committees like the NA or EU to depend on the constitution to protect the access and usage of Digital information by a Private entity, especially when that private entity is the single largest entity in the country if not the continent potentially. They’ve already acquired most of the government contracts in various areas and also are supposedly leading India into the 4th Industrial Revolution.
But to my point, discussing how we as a nation has become the hotbed for BIG BLUE CHIP companies to spend their Investment $$$ for the “Welfare” and “Peaceful prosperity” of this nation is something I take with a pinch of salt, but still hope to do us good for the next 10 years or so (assuming and hoping they don’t blow it).
Well honestly, it’s better than Chinese money infiltrating and loansharking us. And a Company that’s NET-DEBT FREE (YES) is something that doesn’t happen often.
They will definitely help Digitize the nook and corner of India, because of duh Capitalism! But it’s unavoidable to a developing nation to grow without a groundbreaking company they are shaping up to be, especially when predatory neighbors lurk around.
More to see and read on what’s coming up, just wanted to register my initial non-MBA opinion.
