Facebook's $5.7bn bet on India's richest man Mukesh AmbaniPost : 2020/04/22

Facebook has said it is investing $5.7bn (£4.6bn) in cut-price Indian mobile internet company Reliance Jio, which is owned by the country's richest person Mukesh Ambani.

The deal makes the social network the largest minority shareholder in the telecoms unit of Reliance Industries, with a 9.99% stake.

It gives Facebook a major foothold in India, where its WhatsApp chat service has 400m users and is about to launch a payments service.

"This investment underscores our commitment to India, and our excitement for the dramatic transformation that Jio has spurred in the country," Facebook said in a statement.

• Asia's richest man takes on retail giant Amazon
• Amazon's Bezos announces $1bn Indian investment
• Asia's richest man in $13bn phone ruling boost

Facebook also said that it plans to focus on the collaboration between WhatsApp and Reliance's e-commerce venture JioMart to enable people to connect with businesses, shops and purchase products.

In February this year WhatsApp Pay was granted permission by Indian authorities to start a phased roll-out, two years after the start of a trial version of the service.

In a separate statement Reliance Jio said the agreement will be good for both the company and the country as a whole: "This partnership will accelerate India's all-round development, fulfilling the needs of Indian people and the Indian economy."