Reliance-Facebook might team-up to create Super App Like We Chat

Reliance and Facebook will create a ‘Super App’ like WeChat. But, how will they do this?
There is much difference between ‘normal’ and ‘super’. For something to be qualified as ‘super’, it needs to be exceptional. For example, a normal man can just see while Superman has laser vision and X-Ray vision. A computer does normal computation but a Super Computer does some of the most complex calculations, can process billions of instruction points in a second and can as well be used to launch a rocket to space. But, why are we even telling you this?

Because, reportedly Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance and Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook are working together to develop a ‘Super App’. So, as we told earlier, it needs to be exceptional to be qualified as ‘Super’ and hence, you can expect a lot from the ambitious project that the two corporate giants are working upon together.

Inspiration for This

How many times does it happen that India thinks of developing something new but we come to know that it already exists? Almost every time. So, this time it’s nothing different. Super app already exists and guess where – China! There’s an app called WeChat in China which inspired the richest man in India to think about developing such a thing in India.

Also, here we disclose that what would be special in that app. So, according to a report, in the same app you will not only be able to communicate but also purchase groceries from Reliance’s retail stores, shop from Ajio, make payments using JioMoney and more. These features will make it a Super App and not a normal app.

But How?

You would have heard the news today that Facebook has taken $5.7 billion stake in Jio and became the biggest minority shareholder with approximately 10% stake. This is the first step towards the development of the super app. Facebook wishes to leverage the platform of its iconic app WhatsApp to build the super app. This is evident from a blog post written by Chief Revenue Officer of the company.

As a matter of fact, WhatsApp has the largest userbase in India with over 400 million users! Not just that, usage of this app also quite common among Indians, so much so that it has become a part of various regional dialects. Such penetration would help Facebook in establishing what they have thought of. Of course, Jio is already an internet giant in India and with the various operations that Reliance is into, the super app looks quite achievable.

Conclusion

Reliance possesses the experience of disrupting the market and probably once again, it’s ready for that. Just that, which companies would be affected this time is not yet known. Facebook has shown keen interest by providing the largest FDI till date in Indian tech space. Mr. Ambani says “Jio-Facebook partnership will define this decade.” Whether it will or not, we’ll come to know with time.