JioBharat Phone Captures 45% Market Share In Sub-INR 1,000 Segment Within 5 Months Of Launch

In a span of five months since its launch, JioBharat feature phone now command a 45% market share in the sub-INR 1,000 price segment, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) said in its quarterly financial results on Friday (January 19).

RIL chairman and managing director, Mukesh Ambani, termed the strong uptake of the feature phone as one of the reasons behind telecom operator Jio’s expansion of subscriber base. 

“The strong uptake of the JioBharat phone and JioAirFiber services has resulted in continued expansion of Jio’s subscriber base, contributing to the stellar growth numbers of the digital services business,” said Ambani. 

The company also claimed that, since the launch of the feature phone, Jio’s wireless net additions in rural India have grown 5.2X of its nearest competitor.

The company said that the JioBharat platform now operates three SKUs with price points ranging between INR 999 to INR 2,599. While touting its newest launch, JioPhone Prima, the conglomerate also said that discussions were underway with multiple original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to expand the platform further.

In its investor presentation, RIL also claimed that JioBharat users accounted for a majority, 60% to be precise, of the UPI123 Pay transactions in December 2023. 

RIL also said that it launched an ‘Innovation Hub’ in Mumbai in Q3 FY24 in partnership with global telecom alliance, TM Forum. The hub will be centred on accelerating the development of GenAI and large language models (LLMs). 

“TM Forum, the leading global alliance of telcos and tech companies and Jio opened an Innovation Hub in Mumbai during the quarter. The Innovation Hub, the first of its kind for the industry, will focus its first efforts on accelerating the development of Generative AI (Gen AI) and Large Language Models (LLM) and Open Digital Architecture to benefit the whole industry,” said the company in a statement. 

The feature phone and GenAI push is part of RIL’s pitch to further scale up its digital ecosystem and umbrella of apps. On the feature phone front, the company first began its tryst back in 2018 when its arm, Reliance Retail, acquired a 16% stake in KaiOS for $7 Mn. 

While the operating system was eventually integrated into its JioPhones, the new JioBharat phone strategy looks to reel in users with cheap smartphones with embedded Jio SIM cards. With this, it aims to bolster its platform play and convert new internet users into mature and data-guzzling internet customers. 

Even as feature phones become obsolete in the face of smartphones, the former market still generated revenue to the tune of $2.23 Bn in 2023.  

Meanwhile, RIL’s digital arm, Jio Platforms, continues to post healthy numbers. The digital giant saw its net profits jump 11.6% to INR 5,445 Cr in Q3 FY24, up from INR 4,881 Cr in the year-ago period.

On similar lines, revenue from operations also rose 11% YoY to INR 27,697 Cr in the quarter under review.