Rel Jio ends FY17 with 108.9 million customers

Almost two-thirds of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd’s subscribers at the end of March had signed up for the so-called Prime subscription, indicating their willingness to pay for the service — belying analyst expectations that the user base would fall once the company started charging.

Jio, which crossed the 100 million mark in February, barely six months after it was launched, ended the financial year with 108.9 subscribers as of March 31. Of this, 72 million had signed up to be Prime subscribers.

But for most users, Jio’s offerings were free till March 31. Not surprisingly, for the six months ended March, the company reported revenue of only ₹54 lakh. Jio also reported a net loss of ₹22.5 crore for the half year ended March. The number is low because Jio capitalised its expenses.

Indian accounting standards allow firms to capitalise their expense—or route them through the balance sheet instead of the profit and loss account—until a project is complete. In a note to accounts, Reliance Jio said it would stop capitalising expenses only “when the assets are available for use in the manner as intended by the management, i.e when all the quality of service parameters set by the management are met”.