This is the final post in a three part series on Reliance JIO and foreign investment partners.
In 2020 the JIO unit started in 2016, targeted 60M small-to-medium businesses, 120M farmers, 30M merchants, and the informal businesses. Facebook looked to expand Marketplace, Instagram Shopping, and Facebook Pay.
As of 2023, JIO and Meta have reached a top position in the Indian Internet landscape. Meta's apps and services drive a high level of engagement, daily usage, and deep penetration of consumers and businesses. From an investment standpoint, Meta has succeeded in engaging and embedding itself into daily activities that point to a generational success.
WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Facebook Messenger are 4 of India's top five social media apps (the other is Telegram). This is in a market where TikTok is not approved of by the government (There were an estimated 200M accounts when it was banned in 2020). A challenge for JIO is to continue monetizing the special relationship with Meta. The high churn rate and multiple devices of Indian consumers mean continued and engaged support for Meta's applications across providers.
The numbers here should be used as illustrative as Meta does not publish authoritative numbers and all the data sources use a variety of estimating methods.
In India, by early 2023, there were 117M active Facebook Messager accounts, 229M Instagram accounts, and 315M Facebook accounts. In India, unlike other areas, the usage of Instagram is estimated at 65%, or more, male, with the highest skew in the 18-35 demographic.
The launch in June 2022 of WhatsApp Business resulted in 291.58M downloads in India (Android and iOS). Payments via UPI interface have been limited to 100M WhatsApp users by regulatory fiat. Payments via WhatsApp Pay are estimated to be less than 1% of the market compared to Google Pay and Walmart-backed Phone PE's dominant positions.
In 2023, WhatsApp has grown to 487M Indian users, at a growth rate of 16.6% per year, with 97% of Indian subscribers using the app. Usage in India is estimated at 314.6M active users, almost 1300 minutes per month per average user. (21.4 hours per month per user) WhatsApp advocates claim a 98% open and 45-60% click thru rates on messages (up to 5x SMS/MMS and email rates). However, likely confirmation and status messages account for a high proportion of those results. The number of voice calls on WhatsApp is less than 0.1% globally.
Recap
Reliance JIO is locked in a zero-sum share battle with its major rivals, Vodafone VI and BSNL/MTNL. Facebook has made a substantial investment into Reliance, though Google still holds a lock on OS (Android), payment, and search. Meta largely dominates messaging and social media and is working to take some of the lucrative payment business, but it is a bit player at this point compared to Google and Walmart.
If you’d like to read more observations about “Dynamic India” you can find them at www.ekalore.com/india-business
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