01
Penetration pricing
Start low to win customers and market share fast, then earn later. Jio's 2016 launch offered free services until 31 December 2016 and data at about ₹50 per GB.
The analysis notebook · Day 10
Pricing strategy.
Cheap, premium or smart?
A price does three jobs at once: it covers cost, signals quality, and decides who buys. Pricing is a strategy choice, not just a number.
The simple answer: there is no best price. There is a price that fits the goal: win customers, protect a brand, or capture the value customers feel.
01 / Three common strategies
Penetration, premium, value-based.
02
Premium pricing
Charge more, and give a reason. Airtel describes a focus on premium postpaid customers: it reached a record 1.0 million postpaid additions in Q1 FY27 and a postpaid base of 30.0 million.
03
Value-based pricing
Price by what the customer gets, not just your cost. Eternal's platform fee on Zomato started at ₹2 per order in August 2023 and is now ₹14.9 per order in most major cities (Inc42, July 2026).
04
Segment pricing
Swiggy launched Toing, a standalone budget food delivery offering, now in 50 cities. It gives price-sensitive customers a different product from the main app.
02 / What the numbers say
Pricing shows up in ARPU and margin.
ARPU, the average revenue per user, is where telecom pricing shows. In the June 2026 quarter Airtel's mobile ARPU was ₹264 and Jio's was ₹215.6. A low entry price can win volume. Higher ARPU needs customers who value what they get.
Airtel mobile ARPU₹264Per month, Q1 FY27 (was ₹250 a year earlier)
Jio ARPU₹215.6Per month, Q1 FY27
Zomato platform fee₹14.9Per order, most major cities; ₹2 when introduced in Aug 2023
Sources are in the notes below. The Zomato fee is reported by Inc42 and may differ by city and time.
03 / Risks
Pricing can backfire.
A low price can start a price war that hurts everyone. A high price needs a clear reason to pay it. A fee that rises too fast can push customers to a competitor. The real test is whether volume and margin hold after the price changes.
04 / What I learned
Choose the price after the goal.
My biggest lesson: the same ₹ price can be smart or silly depending on the goal. Penetration pricing only works if the business can survive the low-margin period and customers stay after.
When I study a company now, I will ask: what is the pricing goal, and do ARPU or margin show it is working?
A commerce student's learning notebook. Not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any share.
Source notes
The receipts behind the numbers.
- Reliance Industries: Launch of digital services by Jio, 1 September 2016 · Welcome Offer and data pricing.
- Bharti Airtel: Q1 FY27 press release · Mobile ARPU, postpaid additions.
- Reliance Industries: Q1 FY27 media release · Jio ARPU.
- Inc42: Inside Zomato's monetisation stack · Platform fee history (secondary source, 24 July 2026).
- Swiggy: Q1 FY27 press release · Toing budget food delivery in 50 cities.