BENGALURU (Reuters) – Facebook ( FB.O) will invest $5.7 billion to take simply under 10%of Dependence Industries’ ( RELI.NS) digital unit, looking for to roll out services for India’s grocers and other small businesses by capitalising upon WhatsApp’s already comprehensive reach within the country.
SUBMIT PICTURE: A 3D printed Facebook logo is put between little toy individuals figures in front of a keyboard in this illustration taken April 12,2020 REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
The stake in Jio Platforms, Facebook’s biggest acquisition since it purchased WhatsApp for $22 billion in 2014, will assist Dependence slash away at a heavy financial obligation load incurred as it broadened aggressively into telecoms and retail. Shares in the nation’s biggest conglomerate skyrocketed 12%on the news.
Under the offer, Dependence’s online retail unit JioMart will interact with WhatsApp, which counts India as its largest market with 400 million users, to connect company owner with their consumers.
” In the near future JioMart … and WhatsApp will empower almost 30 million little Indian kirana (grocery) stores to digitally negotiate with every consumer in their community,” Mukesh Ambani, Reliance’s CEO and Asia’s richest man, said in a video statement.
India’s online grocery market is currently extremely competitive, with Amazon.com’s ( AMZN.O) Pantry, Walmart’s ( WMT.N) Flipkart and BigBasket backed by China’s Aliba