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<p><strong>Facebook-Jio</strong></p><p>Last June, when social media giant Facebook made an investment in Meesho, an online marketplace for resellers in India, its intentions had become somewhat clear. For the first 12 years of its existence beginning February 2004, Facebook was busy building user base; in 2016, it breached the next growth frontier: the online marketplace. For the past three or so years, Facebook has been acquiring companies and launching new products in this space. So when an opportunity to invest in a Reliance Industries (RIL) subsidiary (Jio Platforms) presented itself, Facebook grabbed it with glee.</p><p>Within days of signing the Rs 43,574 crore deal, announced on April 22, for Facebook to pick a 9.99 per cent stake in Jio Platforms, both sides have got down to business rather quickly. In the fourth week of April, RIL subsidiary Reliance Retail&rsquo;s online-to-offline platform JioMart has collaborated with WhatsApp in three neighbourhoods of Mumbai (Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan), where customers can initiate the interaction on WhatsApp, go to the JioMart page, finalise their grocery buying list, connect with the retail store on WhatsApp, and then pick up the order from a kirana store. The online payment system, of either WhatsApp or JioMoney, has reportedly not been integrated into the transactions yet.</p><div class="itgimage"><amp-img src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fimages%2Fbodyeditor%2F202005%2FUpfront-1-3_POV-May11-2-x433.jpg%3FAZAk03i01LKxAl1_snZ8EkOh_63PdDyF%3Fsize%3D750:*" alt="" height="433" width="770" class="" layout="responsive"></amp-img>
<div class="body_caption"> </div>
</div></p><p>But the kirana is just one part of the larger &lsquo;new commerce&rsquo; project that RIL chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani had launched nearly two years ago. While announcing the Facebook deal recently, RIL said, &lsquo;This partnership will accelerate India&rsquo;s all-round development, fulfilling the needs of Indian people and the Indian economy. Our focus will be India&rsquo;s 60 million micro, small and medium businesses, 120 million farmers, 30 million small merchants and millions of small and medium enterprises in the informal sector, in addition to empowering people seeking various digital services.&rsquo;</p><div class="itemcenter"><amp-iframe height="62" title="" width="320" sandbox="allow-forms allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-top-navigation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation" allowfullscreen src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Findiatoday%2Fbanner%2Fpreferred-source-new.html%3Fv%3D1.014%5Cu0026native%3D1" class="mrBt15 preferred-source-banner"> </amp-iframe></div></p><p>Even though the Facebook-RIL partnership might seem like a perfect marriage to most industry experts and analysts, it lacks clarity on the finer details, such as how things will move forward. After the initial announcements, both partners have not shared additional information on future strategy, revenue-sharing aspects and conflict-resolution policies wherever there are overlaps. RIL, particularly, has not spoken about how much progress it has made towards tapping those millions of small merchants and SMEs. Going by the recent moves of Ambani and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, both billionaires harbour ambitions of making it big in the retail commerce space. While Ambani wants to give a tough time to Amazon and Flipkart in India, Zuckerberg&rsquo;s ambitions are global.</p><p>In recent years, Facebook has accelerated efforts to venture into e-commerce. After the acquisition of Meesho, last December it acquired video-shopping start-up Packagd, which lets users purchase products directly via live-streaming.</p><p>Credit Suisse says Facebook has been building features within its app that enable commerce transactions, including the recent introduction of the &lsquo;Checkout&rsquo; feature, which allows users to complete the entire transaction without having to leave the app. &lsquo;Facebook&rsquo;s focus has been to drive its advertising engine, which is not surprising given that advertising revenues represent 98.5 per cent of the firm&rsquo;s total revenues... Now, more recently, it has shown intent to venture into commerce,&rsquo; says a Credit Suisse report.</p><p>&ldquo;Across the globe, we are seeing internet giants and telcos converge and cross paths. Although the probability of overlap is high in the Facebook-RIL deal, we expect both to move towards a revenue-sharing model, especially in areas like payments, offerings to SMEs and content,&rdquo; says Tarun Pathak, associate director at Counterpoint Research, a global industry analysis firm.</p><p>Facebook and RIL could gain much from the deal. Jio Platforms&rsquo; equity sale would bring down RIL&rsquo;s debt at a time when cash conservation is critical for debt-ridden entities. As per Hong Kong-based brokerage and investment group CLSA, RIL&rsquo;s consolidated net debt and other liabilities were estimated at Rs 2.35 lakh crore in 2019-20 as against Rs 2.40 lakh crore in 2018-19. &lsquo;Cash infusion from the deal and closure of the Rs 7,000 crore stake sale to [British energy giant] BP in the oil marketing JV should mean a cash infusion of over Rs 50,000 crore and bring down net debt,&rsquo; says a CLSA report.</p><p>Jio Platforms has witnessed its enterprise value soar to Rs 4.62 lakh crore. Last December, brokerage Axis Capital estimated Jio&rsquo;s enterprise value to touch Rs 4.64 lakh crore in 2023-24. Jio Platforms is a larger entity that houses all digital ventures of RIL—the Jio suite of apps, digital investments (KaiOS, Haptik) and big data, AI (artificial intelligence) and IoT (internet of things) capabilities. Jio remains the crown jewel among those investments. &ldquo;With access to capital, data and Facebook tools, RIL can jumpstart its new commerce venture,&rdquo; says a top telecom analyst working with both entities.</p><p>RIL has battles lined up on other fronts. Its oil refining and petrochemicals businesses have shrunk considerably due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Its $15 billion deal with Saudi Aramco announced last year is also at risk of being called off after the government reportedly asked a court to restrain the deal.</p><p>Facebook is looking at benefitting from the deal in primarily two areas: access to Jio&rsquo;s 388 million subscriber base, which would further game the online ad market in its favour. However, it&rsquo;s going to be a long haul before Facebook begins mining Jio&rsquo;s subscriber data and monetising it. &ldquo;It would have been hard for Facebook to crack such a deal if RIL were not involved. No one knows the regulatory business better than them,&rdquo; says the telecom analyst.</p><p>With RIL on its side, Facebook can handle some regulatory hurdles it has been facing in India, one of its largest markets outside the US. The company has an estimated 328 million users on Facebook and 400 million on Whats&shy;App in India. A big chunk (about 60 per cent) of them, though, would be same across the platforms. Despite a beta launch of its WhatsApp Pay service in India in 2018, permissions for a full rollout haven&rsquo;t come through yet.</p><div id="tab-link-wrapper-plugin"><div class="authors__container"><div class="authors__by"><div class="authlable">Published By: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Iram Ara Ibrahim</div></div><div class="published__on"><div class="authlable">Published On: </div><div class="authdetaisl">May 2, 2020</div></div></div><div class="sendros">--- ENDS ---</div></div>

up-front

UP Front

<p><strong>Facebook-Jio</strong></p><p>Last June, when social media giant Facebook made an investment in Meesho, an online marketplace for resellers in India, its intentions had become somewhat clear. For the first 12 years of its existence beginning February 2004, Facebook was busy building user base; in 2016, it breached the next growth frontier: the online marketplace. For the past three or so years, Facebook has been acquiring companies and launching new products in this space. So when an opportunity to invest in a Reliance Industries (RIL) subsidiary (Jio Platforms) presented itself, Facebook grabbed it with glee.</p><p>Within days of signing the Rs 43,574 crore deal, announced on April 22, for Facebook to pick a 9.99 per cent stake in Jio Platforms, both sides have got down to business rather quickly. In the fourth week of April, RIL subsidiary Reliance Retail&rsquo;s online-to-offline platform JioMart has collaborated with WhatsApp in three neighbourhoods of Mumbai (Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan), where customers can initiate the interaction on WhatsApp, go to the JioMart page, finalise their grocery buying list, connect with the retail store on WhatsApp, and then pick up the order from a kirana store. The online payment system, of either WhatsApp or JioMoney, has reportedly not been integrated into the transactions yet.</p><div class="itgimage"><div class="itgimage"><img  height="433"  title=""  width="770"  class="" alt="" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fimages%2Fbodyeditor%2F202005%2FUpfront-1-3_POV-May11-2-x433.jpg%3FAZAk03i01LKxAl1_snZ8EkOh_63PdDyF%3Fsize%3D750:*" loading="lazy" /></div>
<div class="body_caption"> </div>
</div></p><p>But the kirana is just one part of the larger &lsquo;new commerce&rsquo; project that RIL chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani had launched nearly two years ago. While announcing the Facebook deal recently, RIL said, &lsquo;This partnership will accelerate India&rsquo;s all-round development, fulfilling the needs of Indian people and the Indian economy. Our focus will be India&rsquo;s 60 million micro, small and medium businesses, 120 million farmers, 30 million small merchants and millions of small and medium enterprises in the informal sector, in addition to empowering people seeking various digital services.&rsquo;</p><div class="itemcenter"><iframe scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="62" awidth="320" aheight="62" amplayout="fixed" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Findiatoday%2Fbanner%2Fpreferred-source-new.html%3Fv%3D1.014" class="preferred-source-banner" loading="lazy"></iframe></div><style>.preferred-source-banner{  margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}</style></p><p>Even though the Facebook-RIL partnership might seem like a perfect marriage to most industry experts and analysts, it lacks clarity on the finer details, such as how things will move forward. After the initial announcements, both partners have not shared additional information on future strategy, revenue-sharing aspects and conflict-resolution policies wherever there are overlaps. RIL, particularly, has not spoken about how much progress it has made towards tapping those millions of small merchants and SMEs. Going by the recent moves of Ambani and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, both billionaires harbour ambitions of making it big in the retail commerce space. While Ambani wants to give a tough time to Amazon and Flipkart in India, Zuckerberg&rsquo;s ambitions are global.</p><p>In recent years, Facebook has accelerated efforts to venture into e-commerce. After the acquisition of Meesho, last December it acquired video-shopping start-up Packagd, which lets users purchase products directly via live-streaming.</p><p>Credit Suisse says Facebook has been building features within its app that enable commerce transactions, including the recent introduction of the &lsquo;Checkout&rsquo; feature, which allows users to complete the entire transaction without having to leave the app. &lsquo;Facebook&rsquo;s focus has been to drive its advertising engine, which is not surprising given that advertising revenues represent 98.5 per cent of the firm&rsquo;s total revenues... Now, more recently, it has shown intent to venture into commerce,&rsquo; says a Credit Suisse report.</p><p>&ldquo;Across the globe, we are seeing internet giants and telcos converge and cross paths. Although the probability of overlap is high in the Facebook-RIL deal, we expect both to move towards a revenue-sharing model, especially in areas like payments, offerings to SMEs and content,&rdquo; says Tarun Pathak, associate director at Counterpoint Research, a global industry analysis firm.</p><p>Facebook and RIL could gain much from the deal. Jio Platforms&rsquo; equity sale would bring down RIL&rsquo;s debt at a time when cash conservation is critical for debt-ridden entities. As per Hong Kong-based brokerage and investment group CLSA, RIL&rsquo;s consolidated net debt and other liabilities were estimated at Rs 2.35 lakh crore in 2019-20 as against Rs 2.40 lakh crore in 2018-19. &lsquo;Cash infusion from the deal and closure of the Rs 7,000 crore stake sale to [British energy giant] BP in the oil marketing JV should mean a cash infusion of over Rs 50,000 crore and bring down net debt,&rsquo; says a CLSA report.</p><p>Jio Platforms has witnessed its enterprise value soar to Rs 4.62 lakh crore. Last December, brokerage Axis Capital estimated Jio&rsquo;s enterprise value to touch Rs 4.64 lakh crore in 2023-24. Jio Platforms is a larger entity that houses all digital ventures of RIL—the Jio suite of apps, digital investments (KaiOS, Haptik) and big data, AI (artificial intelligence) and IoT (internet of things) capabilities. Jio remains the crown jewel among those investments. &ldquo;With access to capital, data and Facebook tools, RIL can jumpstart its new commerce venture,&rdquo; says a top telecom analyst working with both entities.</p><p>RIL has battles lined up on other fronts. Its oil refining and petrochemicals businesses have shrunk considerably due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Its $15 billion deal with Saudi Aramco announced last year is also at risk of being called off after the government reportedly asked a court to restrain the deal.</p><p>Facebook is looking at benefitting from the deal in primarily two areas: access to Jio&rsquo;s 388 million subscriber base, which would further game the online ad market in its favour. However, it&rsquo;s going to be a long haul before Facebook begins mining Jio&rsquo;s subscriber data and monetising it. &ldquo;It would have been hard for Facebook to crack such a deal if RIL were not involved. No one knows the regulatory business better than them,&rdquo; says the telecom analyst.</p><p>With RIL on its side, Facebook can handle some regulatory hurdles it has been facing in India, one of its largest markets outside the US. The company has an estimated 328 million users on Facebook and 400 million on Whats&shy;App in India. A big chunk (about 60 per cent) of them, though, would be same across the platforms. Despite a beta launch of its WhatsApp Pay service in India in 2018, permissions for a full rollout haven&rsquo;t come through yet.</p><div id="tab-link-wrapper-plugin"><div class="authors__container"><div class="authors__by"><div class="authlable">Published By: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Iram Ara Ibrahim</div></div><div class="published__on"><div class="authlable">Published On: </div><div class="authdetaisl">May 2, 2020</div></div></div><div class="sendros">--- ENDS ---</div></div>

Even though the Facebook-RIL partnership might seem like a perfect marriage to most industry experts and analysts, it lacks clarity on the finer details, such as how things will move forward.

India Today

] - India Today

A win-win deal?

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At Davos, Canadian PM Mark Carney was right in saying the old order is broken. But Canada cannot pretend it was merely a bystander to the making of American hegemony. Having prospered as the US' closest ally for decades, Ottawa now wants to lead a middle-power bloc. Isn't that off the Mark?

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United States President Donald Trump, who addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, said that he loves Europe, but it's not heading in the right direction.

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In this Special Report, we focus on the retirement of veteran NASA astronaut Sunita Williams after an illustrious 27-year career. Speaking in New Delhi, Williams described her visit to India as a 'homecoming', reflecting on her deep personal ties to the country where her father was born. During an interactive session, she shared profound life lessons from her time aboard the International Space Station, noting, 'Every person I know is there. Every animal, every plant, everything we know is there, and we're all on this one planet.' Williams, who completed three missions and set multiple human spaceflight records, emphasized how viewing Earth from orbit changes one's perception of global differences. The retired astronaut also met with the family of late fellow astronaut Kalpana Chawla during her stay in the national capital. The programme highlights her historic contributions to space exploration and her reflections on humanity's shared home.

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A win-win deal?

Even though the Facebook-RIL partnership might seem like a perfect marriage to most industry experts and analysts, it lacks clarity on the finer details, such as how things will move forward.

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