Last month Facebook announced a Rs 43,574 crore ($5.7 billion) investment in Reliance Industries’ subsidiary Jio Platforms for a 9.99 percent stake. And on Monday, Reliance announced a further Rs 5,655.75 crore investment from renowned private equity firm Silver Lake.

Within a week of the Facebook investment, Reliance took its hyperlocal delivery platform, JioMart, live. JioMart aggregates local grocery stores on its platform to enable quick delivery of supplies.

The Facebook deal, which brings with it tech expertise nonpareil, and the subsequent backing from a tech investor of Silver Lake’s repute, appears set to push Jio into a successful super app.

Following the announcement of Silver Lake’s investment, Nitin Sethi of Fitch Ratings said: “Globally if you see, users like to use a super app like we have Tencent’s WeChat and in other markets we have super apps which combine all these features, not only a payment system and not only a chatting service.

“I think that is the goal that Reliance and Facebook are working on to create a super app out of Jio Platform along with WhatsApp.”

What is a super app?

A super app combines functionality of a number of apps and brings it on to one platform. Imagine if you could chat, transfer money, indulge in shopping, buy groceries and hail a cab without having to open WhatsApp, PhonePe, Amazon, Grofers and Uber one after the other. Instead you could do it on one app—a super app.

Are there any super apps?

There are a few. Tencent’s WeChat, Alibaba’s Alipay, Singapore-based Grab and Indonesia’s Gojek are some of the more popular ones. However, the most successful of the lot is WeChat.

WeChat provides a number of services on one application. Launched in 2011, the app counts over 1 billion monthly active users and offers services ranging from chat to retail to money transfers.

Are there any Indian super apps?

Apps offering two or more of social media, e-commerce, hyperlocal deliveries and payments services are typically called super apps. No app in India appears to pass that barometer successfully.

Paytm, which built its reputation as a payment services app, ventured into the e-commerce space with its Paytm Mall offering in 2017. However, it wasn’t the same success as its primary service. The e-commerce space in India continues to be dominated by Walmart’s Flipkart and Amazon.

What services could a Jio super app offer?

With Reliance and Facebook combining forces, the possibilities of offerings on the Jio platform has increased substantially.

WhatsApp counts over 400 million users in India and Facebook’s plan to harness the potential of such a massive user base by launching WhatsApp Pay didn’t come to fruition, continuously tripping over regulatory landmines in the country.

Facebook continues to dominate the global social media landscape.

Reliance Retail is the largest retailer in the country. AJIO, an e-commerce platform dealing with fashion products, is one of Reliance Retail’s subsidiaries. In addition, there is Reliance’s ambitious plan to bring the ubiquitous kirana stores on a mobile platform.

Combining these forces into one portends a dominant super app for the Indian market.

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First Published:May 4, 2020 3:00 PM IST