Wealth creation is often the outcome of big dreams turning into business reality. Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google are clearly new-age digital companies that have transformed lives and businesses through path-breaking innovations.

Jio, after driving up data usage in the country, is now shaping up to drive big changes across retail, healthcare and several other segments through digital interventions. And if even a few of these deliver on their promise, we could have India’s very own “digital megacap” stock—with already an equity valuation of well over $63 billion.

While Facebook marked the birth of social media in many ways, its acquisition of WhatsApp has strengthened its predominant position in this space. Amazon disrupted retail through e-commerce and followed up with lesser product innovations like Alexa. Netflix disrupted home entertainment with its OTT delivery. And Google, well simply allowed us to Google.

Will Jio Platforms give birth to a truly Indian retail business model, with kirana stores at the front end? Will Jio change the way we transact and pay—riding on WhatsApp—and the way we access healthcare, for instance?

If it does, these will cause deep disruptions and significantly alter the way we shop, pay and live. And investors will bet on these big transformations when valuing Jio Platforms, just like they did with other FANG players, well before the “potential” numbers actually showed up.

Facebook’s significant investment of about $6 billion for a just under 10 percent stake strongly reinforces confidence in Jio Platforms’ business model. That Microsoft is also a partner in this transformation opportunity, further points to the confidence of global technology majors in the plans under way.

The global majors are clearly looking to tap into the “big” potential in India, and Jio Platforms offers the best opportunity to do so.

One must also not lose sight of the combined reach of Jio Platforms and Facebook in India, which would pose a significant threat to competitors. Jio has 388 million subscribers while WhatsApp too has about 400 million users in India. In contrast, the total ecommerce user base in the country is about 500 million users. So, even considering high overlap between Jio subscribers and WhatsApp users, that’s a very large section that the business can immediately reach out to. Put some big money muscle behind it (of Jio-Facebook combine), and it surely puts Wal-Mart and Amazon on notice.

But, long story short: Indian investors may finally get to invest in a true blue FANG*-like stock whenever Reliance Group decides to take the digital behemoth public.

* The acronym "FANG" refers to the stocks of four prominent American technology companies: Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google.

Also read: What Mukesh Ambai has to say about the Jio-Facebook deal

Disclosure: RIL, the promoter of Reliance Jio, also controls Network18, the parent company of CNBCTV18.com.

First Published:Apr 22, 2020 1:09 PM IST