Reliance Jio a continued success
September 8, 2021
By Chris Forrester
India’s Reliance Jio is 5 years old (it launched to the public on September 5 2016) and is – by any measure – a huge success.
Data usage in India, on Jio and its rivals, has exploded by 1300 per cent during the 5 years, and some of the global content suppliers have publicly congratulated Jio on its achievements including Google, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Tinder, Voot, Zee, Samsung and plenty of others.
The entry to the market by Jio has been good for all of India’s cellular users in that they had to lower their prices to match or get close to Jio’s charges. The end-result is a four-fold increase in the number of broadband users.
Since Jio’s launch internet access costs have tumbled more than 93 per cent, according to TRAI reports.
Netflix boss Reed Hastings has credited Jio with the success of streaming services in India and said that every country should have its own Jio.
Rio’s statistics are impressive and they use TRAI research to say that digital downloads have mushroomed from 6.5 billion back in 2016 and to 19 billion by 2019, and that growth shows no sign of slowing.
On September 10th, Rio will launch its latest phone (the JioPhone Next) co-developed with Google and likely to be a best-seller. The Jio Phone Next will be an ultra-affordable Android 4G smartphone that comes with significant bezels around the display and a single rear and front camera setup.
Its most recent quarter-year saw Jio add 14.4 million users, taking its total to 440.6 million.
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