Zoom, one of the few success stories of the Covid-19 pandemic, now faces a new competitor in an app backed by Asia’s wealthiest person Mukesh Ambani.
Ambani’s Reliance Industries, which has scored billions of dollars of investments from Facebook to Intel for its digital businesses, has launched the JioMeet video conferencing app after beta testing. The app has already garnered more than 100 000 downloads on the Google Play Store after becoming available on Thursday evening.
Like Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and other services, JioMeet offers unlimited high-definition calls — but unlike Zoom, it doesn’t impose a 40-minute time limit. Calls can go on as long as 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 technology giants including ByteDance’s TikTok and Alibaba Group’s UC Web, on grounds they threatened security and data privacy. JioMeet went viral Friday on social media alongside the hashtag #MadeinIndia.
The app is one facet of Ambani’s rapidly expanding digital empire, which includes India’s largest telecommunications operator with nearly 400 million users. On Friday, Reliance announced Intel Capital had invested US$253-million into Jio Platforms, a unit of Ambani’s oil-to-retail conglomerate. The US chip maker’s arm is the 11th investor in about as many weeks to announce its backing for the digital services platform.
‘Very credible’
“JioMeet will be a very credible disruptor in the space,” said Utkarsh Sinha, MD of boutique consultancy Bexley Advisors. “Just the fact that it has no time limits on calls makes it a serious challenger to Zoom, despite its entrenchment.”
Jio Platforms is amassing a wide range of services from music streaming to online retail and payments, fast turning into an e-commerce juggernaut that can take on Google and Amazon.com on its own home turf. Like elsewhere, video-conferencing apps have become lifelines for millions of Indians working in cramped homes during Covid-19 lockdowns.
JioMeet is also debuting at a time Zoom users have accused the service of security flaws. It’s been accused of siding with China after deactivating accounts of pro-democracy activists in the US and Hong Kong, which it said was intended to comply with Chinese law. — Reported by Saritha Rai, (c) 2020 Bloomberg LP
