Reliance Jio, the brand which brought about a revolution in India’s telecom industry a few years ago, continues to grow at an exponential rate. As per a report by communication services provider WPP and market research firm Kantar Millward Brown, if it continues to grow at the same rate at which it is growing now, Reliance Jio will be among the top 100 brands in terms of value within the next three years. Jio currently has a value of $4.1 billion. The report titled “BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brand for 2019” also stated, “Although launched in 2016, Indian consumers see Jio as meaningfully different as Airtel, which entered the market in 1995. Having attracted almost 300 million customers in just three years, Jio could potentially leverage this audience with the sales of advertising and content.”
It is important to mention here that Jio has featured in the global 100 disruptive power brands. The report stated, “Jio disrupted the Indian telecom provider category with its deep discount prices for data consumption. It forced competitors to lower their prices and drove category consolidation.” The report also added that customers of all telecom providers and not just Jio benefitted from its action. The report further added, “At launch, Jio provided free data for the first six months and only then introduced comparatively modest pricing. Jio immediately built a lot of volumes. Customers of market leaders Airtel and Vodafone also felt the benefit of the ‘Jio effect’ as they were forced to drop their data prices to compete and retain customers.”
Stressing upon how true disruption is not limited to a brand in itself but an entire category, Martin Guerrieria, Global BrandZ Research Director, Kantar said, “True ‘disruption’ to me is where a new brand or proposition enters a market and impacts or re-defines a particular category in a way that benefits all consumers, whether they are a customer of that particular brand, or not. Jio, the Indian telecom provider, is a good example.”
It is also relevant to mention here that two Indian brands have made it to the top 100 most valuable brands- Life Insurance Company (LIC) ranked 68th with a brand value of US $ 20.314 billion and TCS ranked 97th with a brand value of US $ 14.282 billion. Therefore, some of the Indian brands seem to be doing well when it comes to competing in terms of brand value at the global level.
Reliance Jio, which was launched in 2016, had brought about a transformation in the telecom industry, especially when it came to the sheer amount of data prices and consumption. Recently, it was reported that Jio has beaten telecom giants Airtel and Vodafone to emerge as the top telecom revenue earner. Therefore, the brand has registered rapid growth ever since it was launched in 2016 and as per “BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brand for 2019” report, the brand is all set to keep growing in terms of value.