A strong competition between Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel is evident for the telecom industry of India. Both the telcos are very aggressive with their offers and look to provide something ‘unique’ to their customers. But Jio is miles ahead of Bharti Airtel when it comes to having the most subscribers and market share, respectively. However, in the past few months, Airtel has been consistently adding more subscribers than Jio. Airtel’s consistent growth at a rapid pace might be making Jio nervous. But is there any way Airtel will be able to beat Jio at its market share? I think there might be; let me share it with you.
Airtel’s Enterprise Business Differentiates it from Jio
I see both the telcos as two different market players. While Jio plays entirely on the normal mobile users/subscribers market, Airtel plays both in the mobile and enterprise business markets. A lot of Airtel’s digital solutions and offerings are targeted at enterprises and not at normal consumers. Even its postpaid plans are targeted at businesses and institutions. Note that this doesn’t mean that normal users can’t purchase these services or plans; it just means that the telco’s primary target for these services are enterprises. Jio is aggressive towards providing services to normal mobile users. But lately, Jio has been trying to do what Airtel has done, and that is why it launched low-cost connectivity plans for businesses. That said, the two telcos are worlds apart in operations and goals. Jio wants more number of subscribers; Airtel wants more quality, high-paying subscribers. Thus, if the trend of Airtel gaining more subscribers keeps on going, it will reach close to Jio’s market share if not totally beat it anytime soon. One area where Airtel can surely beat Jio is in the revenues. Airtel’s average revenue per user (ARPU) is much higher than that of Jio, and the upcoming tariff hikes will differentiate it even more. Jio won’t be focusing too much on increasing tariffs because it wants to grow its market share even further in the short-term. But if the question is, will Bharti Airtel ever be able to overcome Reliance Jio? The answer is yes, it can. If Airtel keeps on providing a better network experience to its users for effectively the same cost as Jio, it will soon catch up to Jio’s fortunes.
