• The final contours of the product are being sharpened

• The super app will be launched as soon as the government announces clarity on the ecommerce policy

• Reliance is pumping in several thousand crores of rupees into its ecommerce strategy with a clear directive to pre-empt competition and be a No.1 player in the space

New Delhi: Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries is reportedly planning to creating a super app by integrating the offerings of local search engine Just Dial, which it had acquired recently, as it aims to be the number one player in the ecommerce space.

Currently, it offers Jiomart for online grocery retail and mobile apllication App, My Jio and the one stop super app is likely to be a marketplace of services and offerings, delivered via in-house technology and through third-party integrations, the Economic Times mentioned in a report citing executives. The final contours of the product are being sharpened and will be launched as soon as the government announces clarity on the ecommerce policy, the people cited above told the publication.

Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) acquired a majority stake in JustDial for Rs 3,497 crore last month.

The app will also be integrated with Facebook-owned WhatsApp on the lines of WeChat—China’s most popular social commerce platform which has more than 1 billion users–they said.

Executives close to Reliance Industries said the conglomerate has been clear that it has to reach consumers for every possible requirement in the products and services space. “Super app is just a fancy term. Whatever one calls it, it is about touching consumers and meeting their every single requirement, ” the publication quoted an unnamed executive as saying. “Nothing is done adhoc in terms of planning or strategy to access consumers. Jio had begun the journey years back with telecom and is now scaling it up and tapping every route that accesses consumers.”

Another executive told ET, “The directive is clear that Reliance should be the number one player in the ecommerce space and acquisitions and partnerships have been long planned to achieve that. We are investing accordingly.”

Top executives close to the development said Reliance is pumping in several thousand crores of rupees into its ecommerce strategy with a clear directive to pre-empt competition and be a No.1 player in the space, which is currently dominated by Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart.

In July 2020, Chinese super-app WeChat officially stopped operations in India after being banned by the country over privacy fears.

“Reliance has been aggressive with growth of communications and retail businesses, and their partnerships and acquisitions are consistent with the move to build the overarching bridge presence of the dominant super app,” the financial daily quoted as saying Devangshu Dutta, consulting firm Third Eyesight’s chief executive.

Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries has been able to attract some of the best global companies as strategic partners. Facebook and Google have bought strategic stake in Jio Platforms and the company has collaboration with Microsoft on SME offerings and cloud. Apart from being a cellular entity, Reliance has built more than 20 consumer apps under its umbrella app MyJio.

“While the app acts as an access point to other Jio apps, it is predominantly used mainly for recharges. In our view, the app does not yet have a strong value proposition that every customer would use. Overtime, if two to three of these apps gain traction, then RIL has a potential of creating a similar impact that of a super app,” said a recent report by BofA Securities. “However, the traction would be similar to that shown by Google in the US – where apps like YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail, etc. are standalone apps.”

However, the report said none of the Indian tech companies are currently at the point where China and ASEAN apps are in the super app journey, and that Indian companies are still some time away – both from customer value proposition as well as the MOAT in the fiercely competitive Indian market.

Ambani had recently also announced a set of integrations between WhatsApp and JioMart on a trial basis. “Our joint teams are actively developing the full new commerce solution, linking merchants and consumers, and we plan to progressively launch these over the next few quarters,” he had said.

https://www.timesnownews.com/business-economy/companies/article/ril-plans-to-launch-super-app-adding-just-dial-offerings-aims-to-be-number-one-player-in-ecommerce-space/802939