Meta Platforms is aiming to strike a deal with India’s Jio Platforms to collaborate on virtual reality (VR) solutions, a report from The Information revealed on Wednesday.

Citing three sources familiar with the matter, the report stated that Meta hoped to port its Horizon operating system (OS onto future Jio virtual reality (VR) devices.

The sources added that Mark Zuckerberg, Chief Executive and Founder, Meta, hoped to become a global leader in extended reality (XR).

As of the first quarter (Q1) 2024, Meta dominates the consumer market for VR headsets with a 64 percent market share, Counterpoint Research notes.

This comes as Meta purchased roughly a 10 percent stake in Jio Platforms in 2020, or around $553m USD (43,574 Crore), reports show.

Owned by Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries, Jio Platforms received an $107bn valuation on the telecoms subsidy from US banking giant Bank of America.

Acccording to TechCrunch’s report, the valuation surpasses funding it received by 65 percent from Meta Platforms, Google, and others from a round of series fundraising launched in 2020.

At the time, Jio Platforms had earned more than $20bn from Meta, Google, Vista Equity Partners, Silver Lake, and other companies, the report read.

A BoA spokesperson said in a statement: “On enterprise business we see three areas where Jio Platforms could capitalize on: government contracts, SMEs and corporates (by offering VAS).”

Meta, Jio Boost Ties with WhatsApp Shopping Experience

The news comes after Meta and Jio Platforms launched a WhatsApp shopping partnership in August 2022, allowing WhatsApp users to buy directly from JioMart using its chat features.

Zuckerberg stated at the time that Meta was “excited” to launch the partnership, which was its “first-ever end-to-end shopping experience on WhatsApp.”

He added,

“Business messaging is an area with real momentum and chat-based experiences like this will be the go-to way people and businesses communicate in the years to come.”

Ambani also commented that his firm’s vision was to “propel India as the world’s leading digital society.”

He added,

“When Jio platforms and Meta announced our partnership in 2020, Mark and I shared a vision of bringing more people and businesses online and creating truly innovative solutions that will add convenience to the daily lives of every Indian.”

He concluded that the partnership advanced its “commitment of enabling a simpler and convenient way of shopping to millions of Indians.”

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