Weeks after Facebook <\/a> acquired a 9.9% stake in India’s Reliance Jio Platforms<\/a>, two more American firms are reportedly interested in the Indian telecom market.<\/p>\n Google <\/a> is considering buying a stake of about 5% in Vodafone <\/a> Idea, the second largest telecom operator in India, according to Financial Times<\/a>. Separately, Microsoft is in talks to invest up to $2 billion in Reliance Jio Platforms, Indian newspaper Mint reported<\/a> Friday.<\/p>\n According to Financial Times, Google has also held talks with Reliance Jio <\/a> Platforms, a three-and-a-half-year-old telecom operator that has raised $10.3 billion in the last couple of weeks<\/a> from Facebook and U.S. privacy equity firms Silver Lake, KKR, General Atlantic and Vista.<\/p>\n Buzz about Microsoft’s <\/a> interest in Reliance Jio Platforms, the top telecom operator in India with more than 388 million subscribers, has been swirling in the market for more than a month, though both the companies have declined to comment. A spokesperson for Google declined to comment today.<\/p>\n India has emerged as the one of the latest global battlegrounds for American and Chinese firms that are looking for their next billion users. About half a billion Indians came online in the last decade, with just as many still living offline.<\/p>\n In the last decade, Facebook and Google have launched connectivity efforts in India to bring more people online. While Facebook maintains one such effort, called Express Wi-Fi, in India, Google discontinued a project<\/a> that allowed millions of Indians to access mobile internet for free at more than 400 railway stations earlier this year.<\/p>\n Both the companies have traditionally struggled to make much money from these users in India, the world’s second largest internet market with more than 600 million users.<\/p>\n Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said last month that the company would work with Jio Platforms to help small merchants and businesses come online. The two companies have already kick-started their collaboration<\/a>.<\/p>\n Already struggling to improve their profits because of Jio’s aggressive expansion, Vodafone Idea and the nation’s third largest telecom operator, Airtel, <\/a> are also scrambling to pay India billions of dollars<\/a> that they owe to the government because of a decade-old case.<\/p>\n Executives at Vodafone Idea, a joint venture between U.K.-headquartered Vodafone and India’s Aditya Birla Group, said earlier this year that they may have to shutter the telecom operator if the government did not provide them some relief.<\/p>\n The American giants have formed multiple partnerships with telecom operators in the key overseas market over the years to expand their reach in the nation. Microsoft has a partnership with Reliance Jio to bring Office 365 to millions of small businesses at subsidized cost<\/a>. Google maintains a similar partnership with Airtel<\/a> for its Google Cloud suite.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tags:<\/b> Manish Singh<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Weeks after Facebook acquired a 9.9% stake in India’s Reliance Jio Platforms, two more American firms are reportedly interested in the Indian telecom market. Google is considering buying a stake of about 5% in Vodafone Idea, the second largest telecom operator in India, according to Financial Times. Separately, Microsoft is in talks to invest up to $2 billion in Reliance Jio … Continue reading Google and Microsoft reportedly considering stakes in telecom firms in India after Facebook deal<\/span><\/a> Continue Reading
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