It was in September 2016 that Jio, the mobile platform from the Indian conglomerate Reliance led by the elder brother Mukesh Ambani offered its free Internet and free calling to customers around the country on VOLTE (Voice Over Long Term Evolution) networks. What started from one customer in 2016 in five years by 2021, has 426.2 million subscribers, the largest communications network in India and the third largest in the world.
What makes this achievement very much interesting is the fact that all investments into Jio Platforms and Jio Retail that got Reliance indebted for almost $21 billion has been taken up by global IT industry giants like FB, Google, Microsoft etc pumping billions of dollars, making the company totally debt free.
By insisting on advanced VOLTE 4G technology over 2G and 3G technology, Dhirbhai Ambani made the right move by avoiding low tech investments which would not bring revenue.
Prof. Vijay Govindarajan, Anup Srivastava and Mani Venkatesh writing in the HBR of Dec 21 How working with competitors made Jio a telecom giant, (click here) speaks of the strategy adopted by Jio Platforms in emerging successful in the long run. The four major strategies mentioned in the article are given here
1, providing innovative value to telecom ecosystem
2, leveraging partner ecosystem
3, engaging in co-opetition (cooperation + competition) and
4, providing unique digital experience through intermediation
Providing a highly affordable and efficient digital communications network in the country when all cellular players were taking the customers for a ride, was the turning point and the reason why Indians took to Jio platform like duck to water. Economical, affordable and value for money.
In just 26 months Jio platforms has changed the Indian communications, data and entertainment ecosystem, besides retail.
The whole nation looks forward to find what is next ?
George.
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