In India, Jio platforms are famous for their commerce and entertainment services, such as the music app JioSaavn and its broadband services are also amongst the most popular in India. Google's investment plan in India is approximately $10 billion. The span of this investment covers the next five to seven years. Google's investment move for India is a follow-up to Facebook's investment of $5.7 billion for a 9.9 per cent stake in the company at the beginning of 2020.
As of July 15, 2020, Google announced an affordable, entry-level smartphone in partnership with Jio. Jio comes under the wing of Reliance Industries, whose chairman Mukesh Ambani has remarked that a special version of Android will be under the works for such smartphones. Google also has 'Android Go', which is a version available for low-level smartphones but it remains unclear how this version for India will differentiate from Android Go.
The main goal of Google's investment is making more affordable entry-level smartphones available to Indian users. This is a reaction to the fact that the Internet is inaccessible to the majority of Indian users but since Jio has almost 400 million subscribers, it provides a boost and hopes to Google's mission.
On the other hand, India has also banned around 50 Chinese apps last month which makes the country's aim clear to ban Chinese-run apps and technology services. With the recent ban on giant apps such as TikTok and WeChat, the investment in Jio could only further serve as a boost to India's local technology giant.
"Together we are excited to rethink, from the ground up, how millions of users in India can become owners of smartphones," Google said while announcing an investment of $4.5 billion for a 7 per cent stake.
