Zoom’s newest rival: Amabni’s JioMeet

Zoom, one of the few success stories of the Covid-19 pandemic, now faces a new competitor in an app backed by Asia's wealthiest person Mukesh Ambani.

Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd, which has scored billions of dollars of investments from Facebook Inc to Intel Corp for its digital businesses, has launched the JioMeet video conferencing app after beta testing. The app has already garnered more than 100,000 downloads on the Google Play Store after becoming available Thursday evening.

Like Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and other services, JioMeet offers unlimited high-definition calls—but unlike Zoom, it doesn't impose a 40-minute time limit. Calls can go on as long as 24 hours, and all meetings are encrypted and password-protected, the company said on the JioMeet website. The launch coincided with a nationwide ban on dozens of popular apps from Chinese technology giants. JioMeet went viral Friday on social media alongside the hashtag #MadeinIndia.

The app is one facet of Ambani's rapidly expanding digital empire, which includes India's largest telecom operator with nearly 400 million users. On Friday, Reliance said Intel Capital has invested $253 million into Jio Platforms. The US chipmaker's arm is the 11th investor in about as many weeks to announce its backing for the digital services platform.

"JioMeet will be a very credible disruptor in the space," said Utkarsh Sinha, MD of Bexley Advisors.

— Bloomberg