An excerpt from a 2020 Stratechery article (https://stratechery.com/2020/facebook-invests-in-jio-platforms-the-building-of-jio-understanding-the-deal https://st

An excerpt from a 2020 Stratechery article (https://stratechery.com/2020/facebook-invests-in-jio-platforms-the-building-of-jio-understanding-the-deal https://stratechery.com/2020/facebook-invests-in-jio-platfor...): “Over the past two years, more than 200m Indian phone users have flocked to take advantage of arguably the greatest corporate gamble in the country’s history. Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, has spent $32bn building up his telecoms company Reliance Jio — the biggest private sector investment in India’s history — as he fights for dominance in the world’s second-biggest telecoms market by user numbers. Much of that money has been spent giving away free access to what Jio says is now the world’s largest mobile data network, with its clients consuming about three times the amount of data of an average European customer. The launch of Jio has helped to engineer a socio-economic revolution in India. For the first time, millions of Indians are able to access the internet to register for benefit payments, download school textbooks or simply watch India beat Pakistan at cricket. The rapid growth in the telecoms network has encouraged some of the world’s biggest retail and technology companies to plough money into the country. Walmart this year announced the world’s largest ecommerce deal by buying 77 per cent of Indian online retailer Flipkart for $16bn. Google is beefing up its India team, while Netflix says it hopes to add 100m customers from the country.” Hell of a legacy.