28m net adds - Jio numbers really are quite remarkable

Reliance Jio has reported its numbers for the last three months, and it does make for some very interesting reading.

28.7 million net adds for subscribers across the quarter, taking the total up to 215 million, and a churn rate of 0.3%. Few telcos can claim to get anywhere near these numbers, though it seems Jio is doing it while making money as well, with the team claiming net profits of roughly $89 million. The traditional players in the Indian telco market must be pulling their hair out over the cheap offers Jio is able to offer while continuing to be profitable.

“Jio continues on its path to drive digital revolution in India,” said Mukesh Ambani, MD of Reliance Industries. “We doubled our customer base and most user metrics in the last 12 months.

“215 million customers within 22 months of start is a record that no technology company has been able to achieve anywhere in the world. Jio has built an ecosystem for digital services and its affordable and simplified pricing strategy offers every Indian a chance to experience the ‘power of data’. FTTH and Enterprise services with strong fibre backbone across the country would further establish Jio’s leadership as a digital services provider.”

The Jio mission seems to be about creating scale, leaning on efficiencies and then creating new opportunities to monetize the user though diversified offerings. But, it does all start with encouraging the consumer to be a more active participant in the digital ecosystem.

The network has continued to expand, Jio now claims to cover 99% of the Indian population, and to have the only network to deploy pan-India 4G across the 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2300 MHz bands. These are not the only boasts, as the team also believes it has the world’s largest mobile data consumption and VOLTE networks. What this does offer is opportunity for the consumer to deep dive into digital.

Jio consumers use on average 10.6 GB of data per month, while spending 744 minutes talking on devices and 15.4 hours consuming media. The more Jio can convince its users to spend online, the more money it makes. This might seem like a simple idea, but the previously digitally starved Indian consumer is certainly gaining an appetite.

Of course, mobile is just the beginning. When we saw Mathew Oommen’s, President of Reliance Jio Infocomm, presentation during the Big Communications Event in Austin this year, he was bullish about diversification and convergence. Broadband was a big area of focus, with Oommen claiming there are only 18 million broadband connected homes in the country, while the enterprise market is currently at a fifth of what it could be. These targeted segments are becoming apparent.

JioGigaFiber, which will offer both consumer and enterprise broadband and entertainment services, was announced earlier this month. Customers across 1,100 cities can no register for services starting 15th August 2018, with the launches being dependent on demand. Broadband will be a more capital intensive campaign for Jio, though we suspect there might be a few initiatives in the pipeline to encourage subscriptions.

Elsewhere in the business, JioTV is growing, as it JioCinema, while the combination of JioMusic and Saavn is starting to look like a winner as well. MyJio, the self-care app, now has more than 200 million downloads, and the mobile payment business is starting to gather steam.

Mobile might be where Jio caused the chaos on the first place, but the team is clearly not satisfied with just being a telco. Jio is on the verge of becoming one of the most influential businesses in India, touching the consumer in every aspect of life.