Telecom data war helps Facebook grow in India

Jio launched in Sept last year kicked off a war with its offer of six months of free mobile data

India became the fastest growing market for social networking giant Facebook in the three months that ended December, sparked by the war between telecom companies to win customers by offering free mobile data.

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio, which was launched in September last year, kicked off a war with its offer of six months of free mobile data. The country’s largest service provider, Airtel, rose to the occasion with its own offers on free and subsidised mobile data in order to conserve its customer base.

“In the fourth quarter, one of the callouts that we’ve seen (is) an increase in third-party promotional