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What is Jio, and why are tech’s biggest players suddenly obsessed with it?

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Re: What is Jio, and why are tech’s biggest players suddenly obsessed with it?

#31

Post by perryizgr8 »

victor106 wrote: post #17
ggm wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is about as useful as observing Boeing has a lock on the US government and distorts the market with Airbus. It completely ignores the real stories in technology and development which make people invest.

Thats comparing Apples to Oranges. Read the book "The Polyester Prince". The Ambani's got it banned in India. It's an open secret that the Ambani's are the most corrupt family in India.

> It's an open secret that the Ambani's are the most corrupt family in India.

Not very sure about that lol!

Re: What is Jio, and why are tech’s biggest players suddenly obsessed with it?

#32

Post by ameen »

ramshanker wrote: post #27
iamshs wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And more importantly choke-hold over the government bureaucracy. They can essentially bulldoze government over any rules and regulations, and bribe around freely. This is how Reliance got big.

That may have been in the past. However ever since Modi Government came to power, industrials access to government has reduced drastically. Initial days of Modi, there used to be some fish trap to warn the officials.

BJP, and it’s allies have been dependent on Reliance and the Ambani’s for so long. No way will Reliance be taken to task.

Re: What is Jio, and why are tech’s biggest players suddenly obsessed with it?

#33

Post by lvbu »

ramshanker wrote: post #27
iamshs wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And more importantly choke-hold over the government bureaucracy. They can essentially bulldoze government over any rules and regulations, and bribe around freely. This is how Reliance got big.

That may have been in the past. However ever since Modi Government came to power, industrials access to government has reduced drastically. Initial days of Modi, there used to be some fish trap to warn the officials.

No way you can say that with straight face. The regulatory capture of TRAI by JIO is very well known.

Re: What is Jio, and why are tech’s biggest players suddenly obsessed with it?

#34

Post by saghm »

bobobob420 wrote: post #22
switch11 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a superficial level - yes Both grew up in India before migrating to US so understand India very well In reality Sundar Pichai - no Satya Nadella - yes. This guy is a @#$#$ genius. And Indians have a lot of respect for smart people who deliver results So, Indian Goverment is not owned by Reliance However, all things being equal Indian Government would prefer an Indian company like Reliance owns the keys to the king…

What’s the point of censoring a curse word. Genuinely curious ?

It's only strange to me given that what I consider an even stronger swear is used two paragraphs down from that. I'm not sure if that's due to cultural differences though (I'm American, but I don't know where GP is from).

Re: What is Jio, and why are tech’s biggest players suddenly obsessed with it?

#35

Post by kamaal »

perryizgr8 wrote: post #31
victor106 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats comparing Apples to Oranges. Read the book "The Polyester Prince". The Ambani's got it banned in India. It's an open secret that the Ambani's are the most corrupt family in India.

> It's an open secret that the Ambani's are the most corrupt family in India. Not very sure about that lol!

The publicly known net worth is just notional number not just in India but any country. Im pretty sure the princes and kings or Saudi, or Putin could be more worth than Bezos or Gates.

That way corruption is very hard to measure in India. There was one story like an year back in the state of Telangana where a sub-inspector was caught, the raid revealed he was worth around 300 crore rupees. That is what he was unable to hide. What he was able to hide would be way more. He was also stupid flaunting around his wealth. Your tax commissioners, property registration DCs, other government front line approval staff, or police are just worth more than your ordinary industrialist these days. The ones below them, the lower level government bribe potential jobs easily beat the net worths of may be even top execs in your Software firms.

This is illegal bribe. Legal bribes run even more deep. I knew of a person whose dad was in IAS, that man would get a plots(for negligible prices) from politicians every time BDA launched a layout in Bangalore. This is legal stuff. Their family is likely worth in upwards of a few hundred crores.

Another sorry sight in any Indian city is traffic police standing around in corners making bribes, when they pull out bundles from their pockets to dispense change. Even a back of visual evaluation and a worse case back of envelop calculation you will see those men would have a few lacs in their pockets.

All the best catching them, because most of these people have associations, and they meet bi-weekly in hotels and work with their legal teams to safeguard themselves.

That way its hilarious to even try to evaluate net worth of politicians or big industrialists. Try checking the quantity of land banks real estate developers in a city like Bangalore own. Their game is set for decades.

Re: What is Jio, and why are tech’s biggest players suddenly obsessed with it?

#36

Post by kumarvvr »

snowwrestler wrote: post #23

> Within a span of four years, Reliance pumped in over $33 billion from its other businesses to expand Jio’s market. > Jio was able to achieve these cheap rates by acquiring the only firm that won a pan-India 4G license, leveraging the superiority and cost-efficiency of 4G compared to older cellular standards, and because of the unparalleled size and resources of its parent company. [emphasis mine] > A sizable portio…

Isn't that what every early stage SV company does? Spend investor money to acquire and engage audience?

Re: What is Jio, and why are tech’s biggest players suddenly obsessed with it?

#37

Post by kumarvvr »

switch11 wrote: post #20
partingshots wrote: post #4

Does the fact that Google and Microsoft have Indian CEOs, Sundar / Satya respectively, give them an advantage when dealing with the Indian market? Especially when considering the fact this pronounced interest in Jio is largely just as a way to enter into negotiations with the owners of the Indian market/government.

At a superficial level - yes Both grew up in India before migrating to US so understand India very well In reality Sundar Pichai - no Satya Nadella - yes. This guy is a @#$#$ genius. And Indians have a lot of respect for smart people who deliver results So, Indian Goverment is not owned by Reliance However, all things being equal Indian Government would prefer an Indian company like Reliance owns the keys to the king…

> JioMart.

Recently ordered a few items on it. A toothpaste, some Almonds.

It came in a paper bag, wet from rain, soggy and a mess.

However there are two things that are massively in favor of JioMart.

Reliance already has about 11,000 stores in over 6700 cities. These are called "Reliance Fresh" and are quite popular. JioMart is using these stores to send orders to and deliver them.

The costs for capital and expenses for these stores are already done and most of them are profitable.

All JioMart is doing is to consolidate the stock information, take orders and push orders to appropriate stores.

Re: What is Jio, and why are tech’s biggest players suddenly obsessed with it?

#38

Post by kumarvvr »

hvaoc wrote: post #29

Jio’s parent company reliance is a textbook crony capitalism model. Since it’s inception they have been able to get unfair advantage by having or buying insiders from the government also they hire ex-bureaucrats for their network and no the moves in the government before it becomes public. On top of it Indian government was holding back retail market access from international competition till they get to ramp up (whi…

No different from lobbying efforts in the US.

Case Point : TurboTax

Re: What is Jio, and why are tech’s biggest players suddenly obsessed with it?

#39

Post by kumarvvr »

iamshs wrote: post #6

I wonder how the work culture inside Jio is. Reliance (Petro-refinery side) is one of the "core companies" for Chemical Engineers but after a summer internship, students didn't seem interested in pursuing employment there unless there was no option left. These companies used to be derogatorily referred to as 'Lala companies' based on the heredity CEOship. (Lalas typically are merchant class of India, who pass on thei…

Work environment stories are typically bad. They have a reputation of being a "chew and spit" model.

Re: What is Jio, and why are tech’s biggest players suddenly obsessed with it?

#40

Post by wtmt »

I can’t understand why tech’s biggest players are obsessed with it. I mean, I know what they may be thinking and why they’re salivating. But I believe they’re just behaving as if they don’t want to be left behind and seen as losers, whereas the truth (IMO, and take this with a big pinch of salt) is that this looks like the seemingly limitless amount of money pumped in by Uber or SoftBank in the hopes of “capturing the market and making boatloads of money”, only to realize later that the underlying proposition and the model were defective, which they will never admit.

Reliance has a lot of political backing (and Jio is what it is today because of concessions), but again strictly IMO, I think all these tech companies “investing” in Jio will be left holding the bag in a few years.

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