Jio and Airtel are prominent companies in the telecommunication sector. In FY 23, the companies reported a revenue of Rs. 90,786 crores and Rs. 1,31,145 crores respectively.
Airtel was founded in 1995 as a small company and Jio launched its operations as a subsidiary of Reliance in 2016. Ever since then the two companies have been in strong competition.
Jio’s market share is at 39.5% whereas Airtel’s is at 32.9%.
Jio’s launch was strategic to enter a highly competitive market. It offered free and high-speed services as its launch offer. Although Airtel launched 4G first in India, jio was marketing it the best!
In just 83 days of launch, it had 50 million users which took Airtel 12 years to do. The company was penetrating deep into the Indian market.
When Jio was launched, Airtel was a leader in the industry with a market share of 24%. The rest of the telecom sector suffered, and they were forced to slash down their prices. Yet Airtel has been a powerful competitor all along.
Head to Head in Finance
Little did the world know, there was a battle about to go down. A competition between the two companies could be witnessed ever since. Jio had a product to enter the market but Airtel had the ability to sustain.
Airtel launched Airtel Payments Bank in 2016 with Kotak Mahindra Bank. It offers services such as FASTag, a digital locker for gold investment called DigiGold, tickets booking, deposit and withdrawal of cash, bill payments etc. The company’s net profit for FY 23 stood at Rs. 21.7 crores.
Reliance is not leaving any stone unturned. In 1999 they launched Jio finance services and a payments bank in 2018 for services such as paying bills, recharge, transferring money and other bank services. Jio Finance became an independent entity and was listed in 2023. Jio’s bank is in partnership with SBI. It reported a net profit of Rs. 31 crores in FY 23.
Airtel Xstream vs. Jio Fiber
In India, Airtel is a leading broadband service due to its variety of plans and fast services. It reaches every part of the country and provides a first-class experience to its users, with high quality and fast downloads. It offers Airtel Xstream Fiber WIFI with unlimited data and a router that works around the clock for the customers.
Jio broadband is popular because of its affordable services. Jio Fiber offers not just a high-speed connection but also avoids the need to change wires post-installation with upgrades. In 2023, Jio broadband was leading with a market share of 31% and Airtel had a market share of 25%.
Jio Cinema began in 2016 and recently launched affordable plans of just Rs. 29/month and Rs.89/month as family plan. With the addition of Voot and Disney+ Hotstar, Jio will take over the OTT scene in India. Airtel Xstream Play is the company’s OTT platform which began in 2022. In 2023, it crossed 5 million paid users in comparison to Jio Cinema’s 221 million users.
Airtel currently limits itself mainly to telecom and some other services such as broadband, DTH, payments bank etc. Whereas Jio has expanded its horizon to Jio Savan, Jio Cinema, Jio Mart, etc.
Reliance is World’s 46th most valuable country by market cap and to compete with such a large scale company, Airtel has put its best foot forward. With years to come, this rivalry may magnify and so will the companies’ portfolio.