Bharti Enterprises, SoftBank To Focus on India’s Mobile Internet With New JV

Bharti Enterprises, one of India’s leading business conglomerates, and SoftBank (TYO:9984), Japan’s leading Internet company have just announced a 50:50 controlled joint venture called “Bharti Softbank Holdings Pte. Ltd” which will focus on the mobile Internet space in India.

According to the announcement, this joint venture will primarily focus on three key areas of India’s mobile Internet ecosystem – social media, gaming and e-commerce. It will also aid the growth of various services in this ecosystem, which already boasts of 858 million mobile subscribers as of July 2011, according to the latest stats from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Expressing delight at this partnership, Mr. Kavin Bharti Mittal, Bharti SoftBank’s head of strategy and new product development said:

India, which has emerged as the second largest mobile market in the world, stands at the cusp of another revolution – mobile internet.

With a fast growing economy, a large youth population and access to cheaper and faster data, there is a unique opportunity to build services ground up for mobile, especially in a country where the first screen for most is a mobile device. We are delighted to partner with SoftBank, whose vast experience in this area will help us build and invest in services for India.

Atsushi Taira, the CEO at Bharti SoftBank Holdings Pte. Ltd who was previously an SVP, strategic business development at Softbank Corp said:

Over the decades, SoftBank has endeavoured to develop new markets for Internet businesses, starting from the U.S., China and now India.

I believe that through the mobile internet, we can change people’s lives in India and empower each one of them to contribute to society’s exponential growth. I am very excited to be a part of this vision and delighted to have Bharti, with its unparalleled vision, knowledge and experience with emerging markets, as our partner. This partnership represents a significant step in SoftBank’s journey towards becoming No.1 in the mobile internet industry.

[Image Credit: p22311919 on Flickr]