(Bloomberg) – Zoom, one of the few success stories of the Covid-19 pandemic, now faces a new competitor in an app backed by the richest person in Asia, Mukesh Ambani.
Reliance Industries Ltd. of Ambani, which obtained billions of dollars in investments from Facebook Inc. to Intel Corp. for its digital businesses, launched the JioMeet video conferencing application after beta testing. The app already had more than 100,000 downloads on the Google Play Store after being available Thursday night.
Like Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and other services, JioMeet offers unlimited high-definition calling, but unlike Zoom, it doesn’t impose a 40-minute time limit. Calls can continue for up to 24 hours, and all meetings are encrypted and password protected, the company said on the JioMeet website. The launch coincided with a nationwide ban on dozens of popular apps from Chinese tech giants, including ByteDance Ltd. TikTok and the UC website of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., on the grounds that they threatened data security and privacy. JioMeet went viral on social media on Friday along with the hashtag #MadeinIndia.
The app is one facet of Ambani’s rapidly expanding digital empire, which includes India’s largest telecom operator with nearly 400 million users. On Friday, Reliance announced that Intel Capital has invested $ 253 million in Jio Platforms Ltd., a unit of the petroleum conglomerate to Ambani retailer. The arm of the US chipmaker is the eleventh investor in nearly as many weeks to announce its endorsement of the digital services platform, which has now raised around 1.2 trillion rupees ($ 15.7 billion).
“JioMeet will be a very credible disruptor in space,” said Utkarsh Sinha, managing director of boutique consulting firm Bexley Advisors. “The mere fact that he has no time limits on calls makes it a serious challenge for Zoom, despite his entrenchment.”
Jio Platforms is accumulating a wide range of services, from music streaming to online retail payments, quickly becoming an e-commerce giant that can take on Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Amazon.com Inc in its own territory. Like elsewhere, video conferencing applications have become lifelines for millions of Indians working in cramped homes during the Covid-19 blockades.
JioMeet also debuts at a time when Zoom users have accused the service of security flaws. He was accused of siding with China after deactivating the accounts of pro-democracy activists in the US and Hong Kong, which he said were intended to comply with Chinese law.
(Add the total investment in Jio in the fifth paragraph).
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