Why Google, Facebook and Walmart are pouring billions of $$$ into India??

In case you’ve not been keeping up with business news of late, allow us to provide a quick round-up.

• Google, the world’s biggest search engine, is investing $4.5 billion in #RelianceJio, India’s biggest telecom operator by subscriber base. The investment is part of a $10 billion commitment by Google to invest in India over the next 5-7 years.
• Earlier in April, Facebook, the world’s biggest social network, said it is $10 billion commitment in the same company, Reliance Jio Platforms.
• Chipmaker Intel also said it is investing $253.5 million in Reliance Jio Platforms.
• American retail chain, Walmart is investing an additional $1.2 billion into Flipkart, India’s biggest e-commerce player, topping off on a $16 billion investment from 2018.

Add it all up and that’s $17 billion in investments right there. Over the past four months alone.

By now you would have noticed that these multi billion-dollar commitments came at a time of great economic uncertainty. While the world is battling a global pandemic and the talk of a global recession looms, some of the world’s biggest companies are doubling down on their investments in India.

What explains this frenzy?

The answer lies in far-sighted vision, a fair dose of optimism, and of course, where businesses are involved, numbers.

Let’s get to the numbers first.

India now has over 564 million internet users – that is more than the population of USA, Canada, United Kingdom, France and Italy combined. And it is only growing.

If you are a #Canadian or American company looking to grow your user base, where would you turn to once your home market is saturated? A growing market like #India certainly offers huge potential to rapidly scale up.

With a growing middle class, an evolving Internet user base, and a business-friendly government, the country has an insatiable appetite for new technologies and services.

India is at the cusp of a digital revolution. While some might argue that the digital revolution is well underway, it is never too late for companies to join the bandwagon. As Facebook’s chief revenue officer David Fischer and India Managing Director Ajit Mohan observed:

“India is in the midst of one of the most dynamic social and economic transformations the world has ever seen, driven by the rapid adoption of digital technologies.”

There is another valuable lesson here for entrepreneurs. It is how business leaders reacted during an adversity.