India will have its own WeChat like 'Super App'

Reliance Industries and Facebook working to create a Super App

One of the wealthiest Indians is joining hands with one of the richest persons in the world. As per the ET report, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries and Zuckerberg’s Facebook are exploring the possibility of creating a super app, just like the Chinese super-app WeChat. The super app will be leveraging the already existing Facebook-owned WhatsApp platform and user base. The super app will come with various features like digital payments, social media, gaming, among others. The users will also have the option of flight and hotel booking in this app.



According to the report, Reliance Industries is keen to create an app where, apart from communication, the users can do online shopping at the Reliance retail stores. Users can also make digital payments by using JioMoney on the super app. The idea is to offer an app that will be a one-stop solution for multiple things.



The discussion on the app and the commercial due diligence for the project is currently on. The report says that Morgan Stanley has been appointed the investment banker for this project.

How this deal will shape up and how the final structure would look like is still not clear.

However, both Facebook and Reliance have hired top consultants and Lawyers in the US to explore all the aspects, including taxation and legal issues.


Once the negotiations are over, then only, it will be clear how the two companies are going to collaborate in this project.

Reliance & Facebook Collaboration

Whether the two conglomerates will create a new company where both the players will have an equal stake, or it would be Facebook investing in Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail. Last month it was reported in Financial Times that Facebook is planning to buy a 10% stake in Reliance Jio for “billions of dollars.”


Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the discussions are going on slowly as there is no movement within the countries. It may take some time for unfolding the final deal.

Financial Times report in March states that Facebook is planning to buy a 10% stake in Reliance Jio for “billions of dollars.”

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the discussions are going on slowly between the two giants. Since there is no movement it may take some time for the deal to unfold.



In India, Reliance Retail is focusing on e-commerce during lockdown 2.0. Reliance with other retailers are planning to expand their online services when the restrictions are eased from April 21. Besides, Reliance Retail is also scaling up its lifestyle app Ajio.com. During lockdown exemptions, company is anticipating some good business through its online Reliance Digital e-store,