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According to <keyword id="19911893" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Meesho" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Meesho" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Meesho">Meesho</keyword>'s recent ‘Smart shopper report’, <keyword id="19919711" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gen-Z" source="keywords">Gen Z</keyword> is rapidly embracing <keyword id="19990771" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="e-commerce" source="keywords">e-commerce</keyword>, with one in every three Meesho users being less than 25 years old. This makes them the fastest-growing demographic on the platform. The report also highlights that mass consumers, who typically make low-price purchases, account for around 80% of the total online shopping population in India. Reports suggest that by 2030, mass consumers, who are constantly seeking value for price, will dominate the retail market, constituting 65% of total consumers. At present, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are leading the way, when it comes to user growth in e-commerce, underscoring the significant untapped potential these states hold. The report also delves deeper into the evolving habits and preferences of mass consumers. Meesho has observed that users from Tier IV and smaller cities are the most frequent repeat shoppers under categories like women’s fashion, footwear, and baby care. Additionally, over 80% of Indian online shoppers now hail from tier-2 cities, and beyond, which include places like Ambur, Rourkela, Sangli, and Zirakpur. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="112333596" title="Zomato announces new feature for cash on delivery orders and it can help solve a huge problem" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> <h2>Influencer-driven <keyword id="3295571" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="e-commerce-boom" source="Orion">e-commerce boom</keyword> in North-East</h2>Furthermore, the report reveals that customers in northeastern states of India such as Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, and Sikkim are increasingly basing their e-commerce purchases choices on content generated by influencers, making up for an impressive 40% of all orders from these states. Meesho has also witnessed greater digital inclusion, with a growing number of content creators emerging from some of the most remote regions of India, like Bazpur (Uttarakhand), Kotputli (Rajasthan), and Pakyong (Sikkim). With the growing popularity of content creators, products like selfie sticks, ring lights, microphones, and tripods have also quickly risen to top the electronics category. Another notable feature Meesho identified was a significant rise in the adoption of vernacular languages and voice search, with rates increasing by 162% and 40%, respectively. This surge reflects mass consumers' strong preference for regional languages and user-friendly features. Tier 2 and other, smaller cities have significantly outpaced Tier 1 cities when it comes to ordering electronic accessories, making double the amount of purchases made by their bigger, urban counterparts. Meesho has also seen substantial demand for products like bluetooth headphones and earphones, power banks, smart speakers, screen magnifiers, and keyboards from diverse Indian cities such as Alwar (Rajasthan), Bettiah (Bihar), Pursurah (West Bengal), Rajahmundry (Andhra Pradesh), Sindkheda (Maharashtra), and Sirsa (Haryana). Among the fastest-growing categories on Meesho are books, which grew by 148% YoY (year-on-year basis) growth, office supplies and stationery (137% YoY growth), home improvement (112% YoY growth), furnishings (92% YoY growth), and pet supplies (68% YoY growth). There has also been a surge in demand for personal care and grooming essentials. <h2>A shift towards quick draping</h2> In just six months, over 10,00,000 saree shapers and more than 60,000 ready-to-wear sarees were sold, indicating that consumers far prefer a quicker, easier approach to traditional draping. There was a clear penchant for traditional and modern alike, since Banarasi was the most sought after fabric, followed by chiffon and organza. <h2>Self-care on the rise</h2>With increasingly hectic schedules, mass consumers are also prioritising self-care. As a result, there has been a rise in at-home salon treatments, with Meesho reporting sales of 6,00,000 face packs, over 4,00,000 facial kits, 3,00,000 wax strips, 4,00,000 press-on nails, and 4,00,000 nail paints this year. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="112364583" title="Ola wants to re-enter the quick commerce business to take on Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> Not just this, yoga also made it to list, when it came to self-care. Meesho reported selling about 20 lakh yoga mats in just 6 months. And not just that, skipping and hula hooping also seems to be coming back in vogue, with consumers buying around 2 lakh skipping ropes and 75,000 hula hoops this year alone. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/article/5-lessons-startup-founders-can-learn-from-tech-mogul-elon-musk/articleshow/112375922.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink" target="_blank">5 lessons startup founders can learn from tech mogul Elon Musk</a>

India’s e-commerce boom: Gen Z, small cities, and self-care trends on the rise, says Meesho

<ul><li>Social commerce platform Meesho has announced the dates of its flagship Mega Blockbuster Sale. It will be held from September 23-27, 2022.</li><li>With the festive sale, Meesho expects to add more small-medium businesses onto its platform.</li></ul>Social commerce platform <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/personalities/news/meet-indias-real-gully-boy-vidit-aatrey-of-meesho-is-taking-the-entrepreneurial-dream-deep-inside-bharat/articleshow/93702491.cms">Meesho on Monday</a> announced the dates for its flagship Mega Blockbuster Sale – it will be held for five days from September 23 to September 27, 2022. As it gears up for its festive sale, Meesho is expecting to see a four-fold jump in small businesses participation in the festive sale compared to last year. Currently, Meesho has added over 7 lakh sellers and about 6.5 crore active product listings across 30 categories. “We are working with lakhs of sellers across the country, many of whom will be selling online for the first time this festive season. We are focused on building a platform that enables high growth and margins for MSMEs, giving them the confidence to digitize their business and succeed on Meesho,” said Utkrishta Kumar, CXO, Business at Meesho. On an average, these sellers have seen their business grow by 82% within two years of their being added on Meesho. The platform is also training its sellers ahead of the festive season to manage demand forecasting and order volume management. “We will continue to fuel the discoverability of small businesses, making quality products at the lowest prices accessible to customers from the deepest regions of the country,” said Kumar. Last year, Meesho’s 5-day annual sale saw about 60% of orders coming from tier 4+ regions. The home-grown e-commerce platform has also added more regional languages to attract users and sellers from beyond metro cities. It now has Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia on its platform. In a short span of time, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/personalities/news/meet-indias-real-gully-boy-vidit-aatrey-of-meesho-is-taking-the-entrepreneurial-dream-deep-inside-bharat/articleshow/93702491.cms">Meesho</a> has gathered 120 million <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/personalities/news/meet-indias-real-gully-boy-vidit-aatrey-of-meesho-is-taking-the-entrepreneurial-dream-deep-inside-bharat/articleshow/93702491.cms">monthly active users </a>(MAUs) and is now targeting the next billion Indians. To further spread the word about its flagship sale, Meesho has partnered with celebrities such as Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Rohit Sharma, Rashmika Mandanna, Kapil Sharma, Trisha Krishnan, Karthi Sivakumar, Ram Charan and Sourav Ganguly.

Meesho expects 4X jump in small business participation this festive season

<ul><li>Investors looking to participate in India’s ecommerce story will need to keep in mind that the valuation will continue to be premium even for those startups that are turning in a small profit.</li><li>For better monetisation, <keyword id="3480589" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="meesho" source="Orion">Meesho</keyword> is also entering categories where brands tend to do well. It currently offers brands like Decathlon, Marico and Nivea on its platform.</li><li>It is also exploring a low-cost grocery model in some smaller cities, which it plans to scale if unit economics justify the investments. </li></ul> Meesho, a horizontal ecommerce player that caters to unorganised sellers, has its task cut out before its public listing 12-18 months down the line. The marketplace will not repeat the mistakes some of its new age peers made while tapping public markets. The marketplace may be the first horizontal ecommerce platform to turn profitable, but it is just the beginning of an arduous journey, given that many investors have burnt their fingers by investing in IPOs of new age companies. Share prices have not kept up with the hype that surrounded these companies, which suggests that investors will not chase such pricey companies no matter how fast they are growing. So how different will Meesho be from the other new age tech platforms that tapped public markets? In conversation with Business Insider, Meesho’s chief financial officer Dhiresh Bansal said they have reflected on the experiences of investors who participated in IPOs in 2021 and 2022. The key takeaway is that valuations were high because there was a lot of free money floating around. He says: “But public market investors are focused on profitable growth. Our point of view is that we want to make sure we run a decent track record of profitable growth if we aspire to get listed. We are targeting to grow revenues by 40% and accelerate it a little more by putting investments back, but we will continue to be profitable.” Clearly, the new mantra for startups today is to be profitable but the size and scale of the profit pool will not impress if compared to the larger companies. Investors looking to participate in India’s ecommerce story will need to keep in mind that the valuation will continue to be premium even for those startups that are turning in a small profit. Call it a scarcity premium, if you will. Explains Bansal: “The investment phase of the company in the new age world is slightly longer but they generate very large pools of cash over a period of time. This is true for unprofitable or small profit companies.” Bansal cites examples of some companies in the US that had a small profit pool to report when they got listed a decade ago. But now these companies churn out large amounts in profits. Therefore, these new age companies cannot be compared to traditional companies. Bansal says that even as fixed costs remain the same over a period of time, on a higher base these companies tend to generate a lot more in profits. Currently, Meesho has 140 mn users who visit the app every month and 40 mn, who open the app everyday. With a revenue growth target of 40% year-on-year, Meesho believes it can earn more without fixed costs going up. In addition to controlling costs and boosting operational efficiency, Meesho is also tweaking its categories and model to earn more in some categories. Even though it continues to largely be a platform for unorganised/small sellers from across India, you can find some brands too as the platform provides a differentiated experience to branded players too. Says Bansal, “Our business is largely unbranded, but we have introduced brands in some categories. We have brands like Decathlon, Marico, Nivea and other D2C brands in the marketplace other than brands in the beauty and personal care category.” Monetisation in these categories is much better than the unbranded segments. The cashburn may have slowed and Meesho’s business may be cashflow positive, but a public listing will not just look at raising fresh capital. The issue will be a mix of fresh issue of shares and offer for sale by existing shareholders. Explains Bansal: “We don’t need fresh capital for growth as we have almost $400 mn in the bank. People will decide whether they want to exit or remain on for a longer period— but It will be a mix of primary and secondary offering at the IPO but it will be largely towards secondary.” This suggests that existing investors will look at a partial exit whenever Meesho hits the public market. The platform is also experimenting with other categories as it looks to diversify from its existing mainstay – apparel, beauty and kitchenware. Meesho wants to sell consumers everything but smartphones, electronics and groceries. Adds Bansal: “We have been experimenting with groceries and beyond the convenience model that works in metro and Tier 1 cities but there is a low priced model of groceries that can work in Tier1 and Tier 2 cities. We are running pilots and once we are sure about the unit economics we will scale the business.”

Key facts to know before Meesho’s IPO hits the market

<ul><li><keyword id="3480589" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="meesho" source="Orion">Meesho</keyword> is the new kid on the block that has emerged as a challenger to <keyword id="18635" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="amazon" source="Orion">Amazon</keyword> and <keyword id="6354742" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="flipkart" source="Orion">Flipkart</keyword> with 120 mn users</li><li>Aims to bring 100 mn small sellers across India online</li><li>The newly minted unicorn is looking at going public in less than two years after it turns profitable.</li></ul>Shaan Ansari is a 19-year old entrepreneur who lives in the historic city of Panipat, 100 kms north of Delhi, and he may never qualify for any list celebrating under-20 entrepreneurs, but his story is no less inspiring than Ranveer Singh’s character in Gully Boy. The pandemic put his father out of work and Ansari out of school back in 2020. When crisis struck, Ansari went scouting for opportunities online that would require zero investment and he found it in Meesho, a social commerce platform that is designed to help solo entrepreneurs and small businesses sell their wares to a wider audience. Ansari sourced bath mats and door mats made locally and started selling them on Meesho. When his suppliers could not meet the demand, Ansari borrowed money to start his own factory. Today he manufactures these mats from a rented factory, employs 50 people and clocks revenues of ₹30 lakh a month. It is transformational stories like Ansari’s that keep Meesho’’s co-founder and CEO Vidit Aatrey and his team going. Recalling his trip to Panipat, Aatrey, says, “The neighbourhood that Ansari lives in is a really humble one and his home actually doubles up as a warehouse. When I visited him, his staff and family offered dry fruits with chai. Ansari kept telling us how his family’s fortunes have changed after he discovered Meesho. As a team we travel every quarter to listen to sellers like Ansari on our platform and are now attempting to solve some of their other financial needs so that they don’t have to go to money lenders for working capital needs.” <div type="image" title="Meesho_1 (1)" height="900" width="1200" msid="93702892" hostid="261"></div> 100 million sellers to reach a billion buyers Aatrey’s dream is to get a million local businesses online so that they expand their markets by selling wares across India, irrespective of where they are located. In the last two years, this new kid on the block has emerged as a challenger to the Big Boys of e-commerce. Meesho - which is a short code for ‘my shop’ - has gotten bigger after the pandemic with 120 million monthly active users (MAUs) in a short span of time. Flipkart and Amazon have 200 million registered users each. Meesho’s target is to have 100 million sellers on its platform and sell to a billion buyers. Meesho was born on the premise that for online commerce to genuinely offer value, local retailers had to go online. Unorganized retail accounts for 90% of India’s spends. But when Aatrey and his co-founder Sanjeev Bamwal discovered that the sellers were not coming online because the buyers were not all shopping online. The pandemic has enabled Meesho to bring a lot more local businesses online as it was a matter of their survival. Challenging Amazon and Flipkart In the early days, Meesho’s sales were driven by 15 million women resellers, who bought products from the platform and sold it through WhatsApp and Facebook groups. From being a social commerce platform driven by re-sellers, it today has a share of nearly 30% in total daily online deliveries. Of the 9 million e-commerce orders processed daily, Meesho accounts for 2.7 million, while the two biggies account for 5 million. Clearly, Meesho is the challenger that nobody expected would catch up with Amazon and Flipkart. Another interesting statistic says that of the 70 million shoppers online, only 10 million are digital natives. It is a no-brainer then that India’s small businesses can provide the network effect to any online commerce platform that chooses to target this segment. Meesho waded into this space back in 2015, but found it tough to convince small entrepreneurs to come online because their customers were not online either. Language barriers and quality of internet speeds were only a few reasons why sellers were not online. Even when they brought sellers online, their buyers were still not online nor was Meesho’s app on too many smartphones. This changed after the pandemic but before that it was Meesho’s army of 15 million women resellers that drove its gross merchandise value up until 2020. Meesho is called a social commerce channel because it has been built by women resellers who found a vocation and economic independence by reselling goods purchased from the platform on WhatsApp and Facebook groups. Between 2017 and 2020, 100% sales were happening through resellers. The share of these women resellers is now down to 20% as consumers have now started downloading the app. Meesho’s monthly average users stand at 120 million and 35 million users transact on the app every month. On an average, 110 million Indian shoppers bought on Meesho last year. Not surprising that investors have also queued up to invest in the company. After raising seed capital of $300,000 from angel investors in March 2016, Meesho is valued at $4.9 bn after its latest round of capital raise of $570 mn in September 2021. Its list of marquee investors include Soft Bank Vision Fund 2, Prosus, Fidelity Management and Research, Yuri Milner’s DST Partners, Sequoia, SAIF Partners and Y Combinator among others. Sellers turn brand ambassadors <div type="image" title="Meesho_2 (1)" height="900" width="1200" msid="93702936" hostid="261"></div> Currently, there are six lakh sellers like Ansari on Meesho and the start-up wants to take this to one million. This goal may be work-in-progress, but every week employees join the Meesho Sabha, a meeting where examples like Ansari are discussed at length so that the team does not take its eyes off the goal post. Even though Meesho continues with its outreach programme to help sellers, existing sellers have now become brand ambassadors who are helping others get online. The platform offers peer-to-peer learning in several languages for those who want to get started. Says Dhiresh Bansal, chief financial officer of Meesho, “We still do our outreach programmes but a lot of people are now coming to our platform, as they need to diversify by targeting newer markets. Also the younger generation is more progressive and are taking their family businesses online.” After its success in the last two years, Meesho’s working hard to resolve several issues of sellers on its platform. Most of these sellers have seen a sharp rise in demand for their products after going online and the need for working capital requirement has gone up sharply. Lucknow-based Suman Agrawal used to sell women’s fashion clothing at her boutique but has shut it down after her brand Rudraksh saw sales boom on Meesho. She currently manages 22,000 orders a month. There are several sellers in India who cannot go online because they don’t have the requisite GST number. Aatrey has been a votary of their cause for a while. In June this year, the GST Council cleared a proposal that will no longer require sellers on e-commerce platforms to have a GST registration, if their turnover is less than ₹40 lakh and ₹20 lakh for goods and services respectively. This rule will come into effect from January 2023. Aatrey believes that this will be a game changer for millions of small sellers across India. While the company is not looking to raise capital immediately, it has plans to turn profitable and then hit the markets in a couple of years. The e-commerce player is looking at tightening its belt on costs now that it has attained scale. If it has to turn profitable in under 2 years then Meesho will have to cut back on cashburn and conserve capital. Aatrey says, “This festive season will give us an indication if there is any slowdown. We have not seen that so far, so it will be something that we will learn from.” <div type="image" title="Meesho_3 (1) (1)" height="900" width="1200" msid="93703012" hostid="261"></div> SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/sensex-slips-517-points-goes-below-the-60000-mark/articleshow/93701486.cms">Sensex slips 517 points, goes below the 60,000-mark</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/not-just-ev-makers-there-are-many-more-stocks-that-can-gain-from-ev-play/articleshow/93696654.cms">Not just EV makers, there are many more stocks that can gain from EV play</a>

Meet India’s Real Gully Boy: Vidit Aatrey of Meesho is taking the entrepreneurial dream deep inside Bharat

<ul><li><keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword>'s first social commerce platform has turned 1.23 lakh small business owners into lakhpatis. </li><li><keyword id="3480589" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="meesho" source="Orion">Meesho</keyword> has overtaken <keyword id="18635" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="amazon" source="Orion">Amazon</keyword> and <keyword id="6354742" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="flipkart" source="Orion">Flipkart</keyword> in terms of user penetration in tier 2 to tier 4 cities of India. </li><li>Compressed app size, explainer videos on doing business, monthly visits to households of small businessmen is how Meesho is capturing India’s rural heartland. </li></ul>At 13 years of age, <keyword id="15066970" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="divyanjali-mishra" source="Orion">Divyanjali Mishra</keyword> is a year short of the legal age to work in India but the entrepreneurial bug bit this teen after she saw her brother-in-law become successful online. She too followed the same path to make and sell t-shirts, wallets and belts on Meesho – an enterprise that made her a <keyword id="23267" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="crorepati" source="Orion">crorepati</keyword> before she turned 18. Her businesses HK Traders and Parthasarathi Enterprises have an annual turnover of ₹24 crore, processing 3,000-4,000 orders per day that she receives from Meesho. Her business now employs over 30 women – all under the age of 23 and coming from economically weaker backgrounds. <div type="image" title="Divyanjali Mishra" msid="94399483" hostid="261" sizebytes="34420"></div> Light and fast Social commerce app Meesho has given wings to many such young, restless, ambitious and talented entrepreneurs across the country – at least 8,000 sellers on Meesho have turned crorepatis since January 2021. As many as 1.23 lakh small business owners have turned into lakhpatis on Meesho. With over 127 million users in August 2022 alone, what is driving this unicorn's customer and seller growth? One trait that’s common between Meesho and its sellers is speed. "Our vision is to democratise internet e-commerce. When the cost of trying out a business online is massively reduced and onboarding happens within 12 hours, more sellers come onboard," said <keyword id="1893518" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="megha-agarwal" source="Orion">Megha Agarwal</keyword>, CXO, user growth at Meesho, in an interview with Business Insider India. It also has features unique to small businesses and new enterprises – like the 7-day payment feature. When these sellers are paid faster, they can re-invest faster and hence chase growth. It also helps cover some risks with the ‘Zero penalty’ feature, where sellers are not penalised for self or auto cancellation of orders, Meesho said. Meesho's app is also the lightest e-commerce app in India at 13.6 MB. Flipkart’s app takes up 18 MB of space while Amazon requires 59 MB. "Our customers are mostly from tier 2, tier 3 and tier 4 cities of India. We are aware that customers don't always have smartphones with high data storage. Thus we made our app very light. To make the process of onboarding easier, we are now providing the app in nine vernacular languages," said Agarwal. Meesho, which is backed by Facebook and SoftBank, currently has 360 million downloads – 175 million of these in the last year alone. How does Meesho churn out entrepreneurs from rural India? The social e-commerce team at Meesho conducts monthly travel sessions with the team to the hometowns of their businessmen and businesswomen. It also provides monetary initial boost to sellers who are coming onboard for the first time. “Additionally, we provide free ad credits worth ₹1,200 to all new suppliers who create 7 live catalogues milestones within the first two weeks of their journey,” said Meesho. To promote ease of doing business, the unicorn has created two activation teams dedicated to understanding how to make it easy for sellers who are uneducated. "To improve comprehension and reduce friction, we have created two activation teams from both the seller and user side. Over 20 plus videos exist to educate about sales online. Even the stories we pick to celebrate are meant to be encouraging for small business owners, making us friendly and approachable, " said Agarwal. Over 35% of the seller base from tier 4 regions The social e-commerce app is trying to reach the rural heartland of India. Over 35% of the Meesho seller base hailed from tier 4 regions. In June 2022 alone, there were 23,000 seller registrations – the highest ever from tier 4 cities. Mandi in Himachal Pradesh; Muzaffarnagar and Unnao in Uttar Pradesh; Buhana, Paota, and Kaman in Rajasthan are popular tier 4 business spots for Meesho. Nearly 41% of all Meesho sellers hail from tier 2+ regions such as Hisar, Panipat and Tiruppur, among others. According to a Bernstein report 2022, the sweet spot for e-commerce growth in India is from tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Meesho is outperforming Amazon and Flipkart when it comes to these cities, it reported. In spite of having 700,000 sellers on its platform, Amazon is yet to gain ground in a very important category in India — tier 2 and tier 3 markets. One of India's fastest e-commerce companies, Meesho is looking forward to expanding its portfolio to 100 million sellers with the upcoming festivities. The <keyword id="15066971" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="meesho-blockbuster-sale" source="Orion">Meesho blockbuster sale</keyword> beginning from 23rd September will offer products at prices that are 15% lower than that offered by the big e-commerce platforms, claims the company. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/doodlage-and-ecokaari-startups-are-converting-waste-into-bags-and-clothes/articleshow/94388327.cms">Fashion forward: These startups are converting waste into bags and clothes</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/most-indians-to-spend-more-than-10000-on-shopping-in-the-upcoming-festive-season-says-report/articleshow/94389278.cms">Most Indians to spend more than ₹10,000 on shopping in the upcoming festive season, says report</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/whatsapp-pay-india-head-mahatme-quits-likely-to-return-to-amazon-pay/articleshow/94378345.cms">WhatsApp Pay India head Mahatme quits, likely to return to Amazon Pay</a>

Online e-commerce player Meesho is the new crorepati factory

<ul><li><keyword id="3480589" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="meesho" source="Orion">Meesho</keyword> has more than 8 lakh registered sellers, with 40% of them from <keyword id="142845" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="tier-ii" source="Orion">Tier II</keyword> cities and beyond. </li><li>Meesho’s integration with <keyword id="5862596" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="ondc" source="Orion">ONDC</keyword> is expected to create a wider market for hyperlocal suppliers. </li><li>Tier II cities contributed 54% of the gross merchandise value of festive season sales this year. </li></ul>Meesho, an e-commerce unicorn in India that primarily caters to Tier II cities has joined the government’s Open Network for <keyword id="1664180" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="digital-commerce" source="Orion">Digital Commerce</keyword> (ONDC) initiative. This will help buyers connect with hyperlocal sellers in creating an inclusive e-commerce ecosystem in the country. To create a more level playing field for small and medium enterprises in India, the <keyword id="6416832" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="ministry-of-commerce-and-industry" source="Orion">Ministry of Commerce and Industry</keyword> launched the ONDC portal last year. The pilot was available to sellers in five cities - Delhi, <keyword id="6354321" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="bengaluru" source="Orion">Bengaluru</keyword>, Coimbatore, Bhopal and Shillong, according to PTI reports. ONDC is an open network portal that helps micro enterprises gain more visibility in comparison to e-commerce behemoths like Amazon and <keyword id="6354742" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="flipkart" source="Orion">Flipkart</keyword>. E-commerce startup Meesho’s integration with ONDC is expected to fuel discoverability of products for consumers while creating a wider market for hyperlocal suppliers. “With a shared goal to empower small sellers and give a fillip to hyperlocal businesses, the integration will boost our efforts to democratise internet commerce for everyone. ONDC will also play an important role in expanding India’s e-commerce sector by bringing more consumers online. We have been working closely with ONDC to ensure that the integration is smooth and the user experience remains seamless,” said <keyword id="3480590" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="vidit-aatrey" source="Orion">Vidit Aatrey</keyword>, founder and CEO of Meesho. The pilot phase of Meesho’s integration with ONDC will first be launched in Bangalore and gradually rolled out in other locations over the coming months. Meesho’s adoption of ONDC is a reflection of the increasing demand in Tier II cities coupled with a spurt in the number of retailers from these cities. Festive period sales become a Tier II phenomenon with 64% shoppers coming from these cities, according to a Redseer report. The cities also contributed 54% of the gross merchandise value during the festive sales this year. With the growing importance of social e-commerce, unicorn Meesho was the second-largest contributor in order volume during the first week of festive sales in September, with a majority of its sales coming from Tier II and Tier III <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/ecommerce/news/flipkart-group-leads-e-commerce-festive-sales-meesho-is-second-largest-contributor-in-order-volume-redseer/articleshow/94701015.cms">cities</a>. Meesho says that 80% of its 14 crore annual transacting customers are from Tier II cities. The company also has more than 8 lakh sellers currently registered on the platform, of which 40% are from Tier II cities and beyond. “At ONDC, our aim is to create an open e-commerce ecosystem that caters to one and all. We are pleased to onboard Meesho as its deep capabilities in small towns will set the network flywheel in motion and take ONDC closer to our goals. E-commerce is still small in India and new-age platforms like Meesho will be strong network participants for ONDC in this journey,” said T Koshy, chief executive officer, ONDC. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/union-labour-ministry-summons-amazon-india-over-layoffs/articleshow/95703264.cms">Union Labour Ministry summons Amazon India over layoffs</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/inox-green-energy-services-lists-at-6-92-discount-lower-than-grey-market-expectations/articleshow/95703045.cms">Inox Green Energy Services lists at 6.92% discount, lower than grey market expectations</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/mukesh-ambani-says-india-will-become-a-40-trillion-economy-by-2047/articleshow/95692457.cms">Mukesh Ambani says India will become a $40 trillion economy by 2047</a>

Vocal for local: Online commerce unicorn Meesho joins ONDC to aid local sellers

<ul><li>Home-grown platform Meesho is the latest start-up to join the unicorn club after raising $300 million from Softbank Vision Fund 2.</li><li>Founded in 2015, Meesho launched its first TVC in 2020 that aimed to celebrate financial independence of Indian women. It is now planning to go bullish on marketing with new campaigns and collaborations to expand its reseller user base.</li><li>Vidit Aatrey, Founder and CEO, Meesho walks us through the company’s journey from scratch, marketing goals for the year and shares his vision.</li></ul>It was in 2015 that Vidit Aatrey, Founder and CEO of Meesho decided to quit InMobi and start his own business. He and his partner Sanjeev Barnwal, Founder and CTO of Meesho came up with an idea to build a platform to help micro and small businesses shift online and leverage the power of digital technologies. So, as social commerce was struggling to make inroads in India, Meesho led the way and revolutionized the industry. “Social commerce was already a popular concept at that time but the challenges such as limited access to supply, lack of logistics/ payment options, customer friendly policies etc, were also on the rise,” shared Aatrey. Months went into experimenting with the idea, researching the market and getting the logistics right. They juggled between ideas until they perfected the core business proposition. Cut to today, Meesho has just raised $300 million in a new round of funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 on April 02. The startup has already joined the unicorn club. As per media reports, the new Series E round gives the five-year-old Bangalore-based company a valuation of $2.1 billion, up from about $600 million-$700 million in the 2019 Series D investment. The social commerce platform claims to have over 13 million entrepreneurs, a majority of whom are women. It has helped them start their own online businesses with zero investment, bringing the benefits of e-commerce to over 45 million customers across the country. Sharing why Aatrey started Meesho, he said, “‘Meesho’ stands for ‘meri shop’ or apni dukaan. Almost 9 out of every 10 individuals in India have a dream of starting his/her small business. Given the increasing number of self-employed, small business owners, gig workers in India it is no surprise that Indians have an enterprising mind. However, starting a business requires a lot of capital. India is not such a rich country. Most people do not have access to capital. These people who never had the opportunity to start a store came onto our platform and became entrepreneurs for the first time. One can come here, start his/her shop on WhatsApp, access anything from our supplier marketplace, and as per consumer orders, purchase is made from the marketplace.” Meesho primarily connects sellers with customers through social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook. It supervises logistics, online payment and provides real-time updates. Till date, the company has delivered orders from 100K+ registered suppliers to over 26,000 pin codes in more than 4,800 cities, helping generate over Rs 500 crore in income for entrepreneurs and serving customers in more than 4,500 Tier 2+ cities -- bringing e-commerce to Bharat. As per a recent report by Deloitte, India’s e-commerce is expected to grow from $24 billion in 2017 to $84 billion in 2021. Considering that India has about 60 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) currently, Meesho is just getting started. Aatrey said, “We have ~9M women entrepreneurs and India is roughly going to have more than 250M women who will be online by 2025. Given this understanding, we are just scratching the surfaces of enabling women to start their own business. With the growth that we have seen over the last year, we want to bring our value proposition to many aspiring women, and we see a lot of value in further communicating our value proposition. That said, we will consistently be communicating how Meesho can empower and enable women entrepreneurs in starting their home businesses.” According to Aatrey, the social reselling market in India is estimated to be $6-7 billion (GMV) in size as of 2020. By 2025, the social commerce is expected to be ~$70B and total ecommerce to be $200 Bn as the number of online shoppers, especially from tier II cities and beyond, continues to rise. After the pandemic, Meesho has also seen an increased adoption rate in Bharat. “Overall, more than 70% of our orders come from tier II+ towns. We have seen very good adoption in tier II+ towns during the pandemic: we have served 2000+ new tier 2+ towns since June and our order share from these towns has also increased from 67% earlier to 72% between July and December 2020,” said he. Aatrey believes that the future of online shopping is social commerce and more and more retail outlets have started exploring this medium after the pandemic. “I believe evolving technology is a wakeup call for everyone in business. It is imperative for all to realize the huge potential that digital has and ways to leverage it. The lockdown period came as a lesson for many of us. Many retailers in India resorted to selling products over WhatsApp and that shows how the retail market is also changing and moving towards digital. In fact, according to a retail website, today 85% of sellers using social commerce are small, offline retailers giving sharp competition to large organized sellers on e-commerce platforms. As per Bain Analysis, India has the highest number of internet users (572 million) globally, with substantial room for growth. So, the retail market has enough potential to leverage social commerce and bloom,” elaborated Aatrey. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Carving a niche beyond social commerce" text="Carving a niche beyond social commerce">Carving a niche beyond social commerce</cmsannotation> Since a majority of its sellers and buyers are women, Meesho’s communication also centers around women empowerment. Its mission is to help women achieve financial independence. Its first TVC, conceptualised by DDB Mudra, focused on an unstated need of a woman, which is to claim what she rightfully deserves – her own identity. The film celebrated the unstoppable spirit of women who overcome all social and economic barriers with the line that captures the sentiment of 'Not just a homemaker, a Meesho Entrepreneur.' <div type="Youtube" id="Y0nSzxtiShA" title="Many Names, One Identity #MyStoreMyStory" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Y0nSzxtiShA/mqdefault.jpg"></div> Telling us more about the company's marketing proposition, Aatrey said, “We have more than 9 million resellers on our platform spread across 100 cities out of which 80% of them being women from smaller towns and cities. Social and cultural factors for years have kept this section of the society away from employment. Our strategy has always been to empower more and more people to fulfil their dream of becoming an entrepreneur, especially women, who due to social obligations sacrifice their dreams and fall behind in terms of financial independence. We wish to give them all a sense of self and accomplishment through our platform. Social media is our backbone and these entrepreneurs, our pillars of strength.” Meesho is also fighting against e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart, who are ploughing billions of dollars and have been around for a while. Meesho’s rivals have on-boarded Bollywood celebrities and have a huge media presence. “In the era of Amazon and Flipkart, we at Meesho are trying to build trust through social commerce. Our strategy has always been to empower more and more people to fulfil their dream. Our communication will remain around our USP- to help build entrepreneurs with zero capital. We will also find more channels this year to penetrate our value proposition further,” said Aatrey. Vision After the recent funding round, Meesho is aiming to build a single ecosystem that will enable all small businesses to grow faster. “With the new round of funding, we are now focused on expanding our vision — from helping aspiring women entrepreneurs to creating Meesho as a single ecosystem that will enable all small businesses in India to succeed online. In the last one year, we have seen tremendous growth across small businesses and entrepreneurs seeking to move their businesses online. And with our new vision we will enable 100 million small businesses to start, succeed and lead their operations online with Meesho as their partner in their journey,” said Aatrey. The introduction of smartphones and penetration of the internet and WhatsApp in particular has made the market size for social commerce grow larger, which is estimated to reach $70B USD in 2025. Meesho aims to leverage this demand and go bullish on marketing with new campaigns and collaborations with different partners to accelerate its user base of resellers on the platform. “2021 has come with a new set of possibilities, opportunities, and challenges to tackle. We, at Meesho, are committed to our goal of letting anyone start a digital business with zero capital. Major focus area would be to enable increased adoption of Meesho’s platform across multiple categories which would be possible only when we are able to structurally reduce our prices for our customers. We also plan to leverage the digital ecosystem and unravel more benefits that it can offer for the betterment of our entrepreneurs and Meeho’s growth. We aim at surpassing all our achievements and recognitions from previous years and reach newer milestones. We are also looking at transforming the Meesho app for better experience for our entrepreneurs. With new built in features, we hope to enhance the look and feel of the app. ‘Meeshoites’ are looking at the year with great hope, plans and execution methods,” shared Aatrey.

Meesho's marketing strategy has been to empower women who lack financial independence, says CEO Vidit Aatrey

<ul><li><keyword id="7413619" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="mall91">Mall91</keyword>, Dealshare, CityMall, Bulbul, WMall along with the Facebook-backed <keyword id="3480589" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Meesho">Meesho</keyword>, have raised funds in the past few months. </li><li>Each of these startup is targeting the next 200 million consumers from smaller cities.</li><li>It all started with social media giant <keyword id="6354576" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="facebook">Facebook</keyword> investing an undisclosed amount in Meesho in June.</li></ul>The Indian <keyword id="623994" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="social-commerce">social commerce</keyword> sector seems to be the latest ‘hot sector’ for investors. Many Indian startups – Mall91, Dealshare, CityMall, Bulbul, WMall along with the Facebook-backed Meesho, have raised funds in the last few months. Each of these startup is targeting the next 400 million consumers from smaller cities by leveraging on the expanding reach of social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp. With growing data penetration in India, social commerce is only set to grow. "Social commerce is basically a direct correlation to data penetration in the country. Today, everybody in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities also has an availability of the internet. A long-time back shopping online was restricted to a certain population, today there is an exponential possibility due to the availability of the internet, everybody has access to it from every sector of the society,” said Roma Priya, Founder of Burgeon Law, a boutique law firm. Priya added that given that social commerce has a more one-on-one, viral nature is a great way for a trust deficient demographic to buy again. Funding galore Today, Mall91 has raised $7.5 million through its Series A funding round led by Go-Ventures and participation by Beenext, Kalaari Capital, AngelList India. With the latest funds, Mall91 aims to drive growth and plans to expand to other top 8 local languages of India. The company is also planning to grow its supply chain capabilities domestically and internationally. It all started with social media giant Facebook investing an undisclosed amount in Meesho in June. Meesho is a marketplace for resellers, and connects them with customers via social media channels like WhatsApp and Facebook. “With this investment in Meesho, we want to fuel a business model that can result in rapid job creation and the rise of a female entrepreneurial class in India," Facebook India head Ajit Mohan had then said in an <a href="https://www.livemint.com/companies/start-ups/facebook-invests-in-bengaluru-based-meesho-1560427873327.html">interview.</a> This was followed by Dealshare which raised $11 million from Matrix Partners, Falcon Edge Capital and others. Meanwhile, barely one year old social e-commerce platform CityMall which operates in local languages-- raised an undisclosed amount from Jitendra Gupta of Citrus Pay, Alvin Tse of Xiaomi, Manish Vij and Harish Bahl from Smile Group, Rishab Malik ex-co-founder of Droom, Rajesh Sawhney of GSF and M&amp;S Partners. In May 2019. Bulbul, which is a live social commerce app, raised $5 million in a round that was led by Sequoia. It is also a part of Sequoia’s accelerator programme. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/facebook-invests-in-indian-startup-meesho/articleshow/69782285.cms">Facebook invests in Meesho showing that it will enter online e-commerce sooner than later</a>

Social commerce is the latest investor favourite as they target India’s next 400 million users

North Korea-based notorious <keyword id="279456" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="lazarus" source="Orion">Lazarus</keyword> hacking group is back in action, targeting <keyword id="6354427" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="apple" source="Orion">Apple</keyword> <keyword id="62949" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="mac" source="Orion">Mac</keyword> users with fake job emails that contain malicious files. Researchers at cyber-security firm ESET posted a screenshot on Twitter that showed fake job listings from leading crypto exchange <keyword id="1972612" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="coinbase" source="Orion">Coinbase</keyword> by Lazarus, famous for spreading the WannaCry ransomware globally in 2017. The fake job listing was for an engineering manager, product security, at Coinbase. "A signed Mac executable disguised as a job description for Coinbase was uploaded to VirusTotal from Brazil. This is an instance of Operation by Lazarus for Mac," the ESET researchers posted in a tweet. The fake job emails have an attachment containing malicious files that can compromise both Intel and Apple chip-powered Mac computers. "Malware is compiled for both Intel and Apple Silicon. It drops three files: a decoy PDF document, a bundle and a downloader," warned researchers. The Mac malware campaign is new and not part of previous Lazarus campaigns. This time, "the bundle is signed July 21 (according to the timestamp) using a certificate issued in February 2022 to a developer named <keyword id="14778863" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="shankey-nohria" source="Orion">Shankey Nohria</keyword>. The application is not notarised and Apple has revoked the certificate on August 12," the researchers noted. Last month, cyber-security researchers linked Lazarus with stealing $100 million worth digital tokens from Harmony, the crypto startup behind Horizon Blockchain Bridge. The Lazarus Group has perpetrated several large cryptocurrency thefts totalling over $2 billion, and has recently turned its attention to Decentralised Finance (DeFi) services such as cross-chain bridges, according to London-based blockchain analysis provider Elliptic. The same group is believed to be behind the $540 million hack of <keyword id="14283106" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="ronin-bridge" source="Orion">Ronin Bridge</keyword>. SEE ALSO : <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/personalities/news/meet-indias-real-gully-boy-vidit-aatrey-of-meesho-is-taking-the-entrepreneurial-dream-deep-inside-bharat/articleshow/93702491.cms">Meet India’s Real Gully Boy: Vidit Aatrey of Meesho is taking the entrepreneurial dream deep inside Bharat</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/indians-spend-half-an-hour-every-day-on-memes-and-thats-gone-up-80-in-the-last-year/articleshow/93702734.cms">Indians spend half an hour every day on memes and that's gone up 80% in the last year</a>

Lazarus hackers targeting Apple Mac users with fake job posts

<ul><li></li><li><ul><li>Shopsy will enable Indians to start their own businesses without any additional investors.</li><li>The user will earn commissions on every order they place on the customer’s behalf. </li><li><keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> started experimenting with social commerce last year on its 2Gud platform.</li></ul></li></ul>E-commerce giant Flipkart has forayed into the rising social commerce segment with the launch of Shopsy on Thursday. The latest platform will enable Indians to start their own businesses without any additional investors, the Walmart-owned company said. “With the ability to influence their local network and fulfill their aspirations, users of Shopsy will be able to share catalogues of a wide selection of 15 crore products offered by Flipkart sellers,” the company said in a statement. The catalogue will include products across fashion, beauty, mobiles, electronics and home among others. Users can register on the Shopsy app using their phone numbers and start earning by sharing their handpicked catalogue with their network. The user will earn commissions on every order they place on the customer’s behalf. The commission percentage will vary depending on the category of products being ordered. This is not the first time Flipkart has experimented with its social commerce play. Last July, the company had started experimenting with video commerce as well, with its refurbished goods platform 2Gud. 2GudSocial (social.2Gud.com), which is no longer accessible, was live for mobile phones around the same time last year. It allowed content creators to make short videos to sell certain products ranging from fashion, retail, mobile, electronics and accessories. The launch of Shopsy has put Flipkart’s platform in a full circle, which not only allows sellers to sell online, but allows customers to promote their favourite product and earn through it. This is also the biggest entry into the <keyword id="3658" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="India">India</keyword> social commerce segment, which is currently led by six-year-old Meesho. Other big players in the market were founded only two-three years ago. Meesho leads the segment with over <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/advertising/brands/article/meesho-the-latest-company-to-join-the-unicorn-club-aims-to-build-a-single-ecosystem-to-help-smbs/articleshow/81953840.cms">$515 million</a> in funding raised to date and is valued at $2.1 billion. It claims to have over 12 million individual entrepreneurs on the platform selling to over 45 million customers. It also claims to have over 100,000 registered suppliers in 26,000 pincodes. It is followed by <keyword id="7412577" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="DealShare">DealShare</keyword> that has raised $144 million to date and claims to serve over 25,000 orders a day. CityMall, which raised<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/citymall-a-startup-that-helps-budding-entrepreneurs-start-their-ventures-on-whatsapp-has-raised-over-22-million/articleshow/83741383.cms"> $22 million </a>last month, claims to have a network of 20,000 community leaders catering to 200,000 customers. SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/swiggy-coo-vivek-sunder-will-be-exiting-the-company-by-october/articleshow/84010468.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Swiggy COO Vivek Sunder will be exiting the company by October, CEO Sriharsha Majety may take over</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/bhavna-suresh-has-closed-indias-largest-seed-round-for-her-nine-month-old-startup-10club/articleshow/83978841.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Meet Bhavna Suresh ⁠— a serial entrepreneur who just raised $40 million in seed funding for her startup 10club</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/one-year-of-chinese-apps-ban-indian-alternatives-take-over-tiktok/articleshow/83943865.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">One year of Chinese apps ban — Indian alternatives take over TikTok</a>

You can now make money from Flipkart by recommending your favourite products

<ul><li>Prime time shows have over 60% of ‘co-viewing instances’ with families watching TV together. </li><li>TV in India has an unparalleled position as a family entertainment platform, both in terms of price as well as reach, said a <keyword id="45949" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="jm-financial" source="Orion">JM Financial</keyword> report. </li><li>Growth in <keyword id="1245953" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ott" source="Orion">OTT</keyword> has expanded the overall video consumption, and has not come at the expense of <keyword id="1632453" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="linear-tv" source="Orion">linear TV</keyword>. </li><li>Urban youth with access to wired broadband and proclivity to watch international content are likely to shift exclusively to <keyword id="5293670" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ott-platforms" source="Orion">OTT platforms</keyword>, the report said. </li><li>Low cost of pay TV and low wired broadband penetration can work against cord-cutting, the report said. </li></ul>For families across India, prime time is mostly spent in front of their television sets. According to JM Financial, prime time shows have over 60% of ‘co-viewing instances’ – and this is what will keep TVs running in India in spite of the proliferation of OTT, as per the report. In addition to the fact that 98% of Indian homes only have a single TV, low proliferation of wired broadband is also keeping people from making the total shift exclusively to OTT. While India has over 650 million mobile broadband users, it has only 18 million wired broadband connections. “Note, these 18 million connections include small and medium enterprises as well, leaving even lower connections for households. We believe these trends and facts suggest TV screens - and linear TV - will remain the mainstay of India’s family entertainment,” said the report named ‘In the eye of the storm’. It also said that growth in OTT has expanded the overall video consumption, and has not come at the expense of linear TV. Pay TV vs OTT vs Free Dish The cost of pay TV – that’s subscription-based TV viewing – is around $3 per month. In comparison, OTT subscription cost is at least 2.5 times that of pay TV. “TV in India has an unparalleled position as a family entertainment platform, both in terms of price as well as reach,” the report said. In the US, however, where subscribers are shifting away from pay TV to OTT – it’s the exact opposite. While pay TV is at around $100 a month, Netflix subscription plans start at $10 per month. Added to that, wired broadband penetration in the US is at 95%. In spite of the fundamentals that support the long-term prospects of linear TV, it is being hurt by many factors. The usual suspect is OTT, which has been chipping away the top-of-the-pyramid user base off pay TV, who are the best spenders. This is reflected in the 6% decline in pay TV subscribers between 2019 to 2021. During the same period, broadcasters’ subscription revenue declined by 13% and ad revenue too went down by 12% – hurt by lowered FMCG ad spends and pandemic-led troubles. FMCG contributes to 50% of TV ad spends. On the other end of the spectrum, the government's DD Free Dish, a free-to-air <keyword id="6411255" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="dth" source="Orion">DTH</keyword>, too has pulled away millions of subscribers. Against cord-cutting The JM Financial report, however, believes that there is reason to be sanguine. “TV screen’s dominance during prime time coupled with pay-TV’s low ARPU and wired broadband’s lower penetration in India work against cord-cutting,” the report said. Broadcasters have been withdrawing General Entertainment Channels or GECs from DD Free Dish. That could stem the migration of viewers from pay TV. Moreover, it also expects that receding raw material cost inflation and buoyant festive demand could boost ad-revenue growth starting in the second half of the current financial year. “Unlike the general perception, our analysis indicates TV has held on to its share of ad spend while digital has gained at the expense of other media. TV’s wider reach and India’s low ad-spend-to-GDP ratio mean significant headroom for both TV and digital ad-spend to grow,” the report said. Moreover, India still has close to 100 million non-TV households, which provides a long runway for growth. Where are ad volumes going? Ad volumes have been falling differently across channel genres. Free commercial time (FCT) in genres such as English movies and English niche fell sharply even over 2019-21— reflecting the impact of OTT on select genres. The ad volumes of English movie channels declined the steepest at 45% while English niche went down by 29% and that of music channels went down 19%. “Urban youth, the viewership base of English channels on TV, appear to have shifted to OTT with global, on-demand content. Following the same logic, there seems to be a small impact on Hindi GEC (-3% FCT over 2019-21) while <keyword id="42771" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="regional" source="Orion">regional</keyword> genres seem largely unaffected, as of now,” the report said. On the other hand, ad volumes grew in genres like news, Hindi movies, Marathi channels, Tamil channels, Kannada, Bengali and Malayalam. However, ad volume fall in English channels have little effect on overall growth in TV as it constitutes only 1% of overall TV viewership. Even as the urban youth with access to wired broadband, higher spending capacity, and proclivity to watch international and niche content are likely to cut the cords and shift exclusively to OTT platforms, there is a lot of juice left in the linear TV market. “With around 300 million households, a sprawling regional language market, and a diverse cultural background, India offers significant opportunities for all forms of entertainment to co-exist. We believe OTT, pay TV, and free-to-air channels will all co-exist in the country,” the report said. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/entertainment/news/prime-videos-four-more-shots-please-season-three-to-debut-on-october-21/articleshow/94701251.cms">Prime Video's 'Four More Shots Please!' season three to debut on October 21</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/ecommerce/news/flipkart-group-leads-e-commerce-festive-sales-meesho-is-second-largest-contributor-in-order-volume-redseer/articleshow/94701015.cms">Flipkart group leads e-commerce festive sales, Meesho is second largest contributor in order volume: Redseer</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/instagram-is-developing-a-nudity-protection-feature-to-block-unsolicited-nude-photos-in-dms/articleshow/94697784.cms">Instagram is developing a ‘Nudity Protection’ feature to block unsolicited nude photos in DMs</a>

Indians stick to TV for prime time and that's keeping them from cutting the 'cord'

<ul><li>Mark Zuckerberg talked about India’s role in building the metaverse at the Fuel for India 2021 event.</li><li>Zuckerberg highlighted how India’s startup, developer and creator ecosystem is already building towards the future of the metaverse.</li><li><keyword id="399907" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="meta" source="Orion">Meta</keyword> also announced its extended partnership with CBSE.</li></ul>Meta (formerly Facebook) CEO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/enterprise/news/facebook-meta-microsoft-epic-games-and-others-companies-building-the-metaverse/articleshow/87663969.cms">Mark Zuckerberg</a> said he’s “really excited” about India’s role in building the metaverse. Speaking at the second edition of Fuel for India event, Zuckerberg talked about how India is already building towards the metaverse, a future he envisions will be the successor to the mobile internet. "I am really excited about the role that India will play in building this future. India’s talent pool – the engineers, developers and creators, and your whole vibrant start-up ecosystem are playing a huge role in shaping the future. India is on track to have the largest app developer base in the world by 2024, and already has one of the largest Spark AR developer communities,” Zuckerberg said. Zuckerberg also highlighted the developer and individual entrepreneur ecosystem in India and “the spirit around that is one of the things that makes India so special.” He added that India will provide a huge amount of the foundation for the metaverse. Metaverse is Meta’s next major focus for the years to come and it is already on track in creating such experiences for users. The company announced its rebranding with a new name ‘Meta’ to highlight its shift and focus to the metaverse – a digital environment where people can interact with others virtually anywhere, shop, work, play games and more. Zuckerberg also mentioned Meta’s investments in education and commerce platforms like Unacademy and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/meesho-becomes-most-downloaded-e-commerce-app-globally/articleshow/87630080.cms">Meesho</a>, and how the company will continue to invest in these areas. At the Fuel for India 2021 event, Meta also announced it is extending its partnership with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to educate over 10 million students and one 1 million educators through a curriculum on digital safety and online well-being and Augmented Reality (AR). Meta had also opened its first standalone office in Asia located in Gurugram. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/instagram-has-reportedly-hit-two-billion-monthly-active-users-but-regulatory-scrutiny-may-prevent-it-from-celebrating-the-milestone/articleshow/88292716.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Instagram has reportedly hit two billion monthly active users, but regulatory scrutiny may prevent it from celebrating the milestone</a>

Here is why Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg is praising India's techies as he dreams of a Metaverse future

<ul><li><keyword id="7413620" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="simsim">simsim</keyword> will continue to work independently as a separate entity even after the acquisition.</li><li>It has raised about $15.5 million to date from Accel, Shunwei Capital and Good Capital.</li><li>The Indian social commerce segment is really hot at the moment, with the entry of Tiger Global and SoftBank.</li></ul>US-based search giant Google’s video streaming platform <keyword id="10879" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="YouTube">YouTube</keyword> has announced the acquisition of Indian <keyword id="9674678" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Video-Commerce">video commerce</keyword> platform simsim on Tuesday, July 20. The firms have not disclosed any financial details of the deal. simsim -- founded by Amit Bagaria, Kunal Suri, and Saurabh Vashishtha in June 2019 -- is an e-commerce platform that helps small businesses transaction to the digital economy using videos and content creation. The company connects local businesses, influencers and customers. “We started simsim with the mission of helping users across India shop online with ease, enabled through small sellers and brands showcasing and selling their products using the power of content by trusted influencers. Being a part of the YouTube and Google ecosystem furthers simsim in its mission,” the company’s co-founders said in a joint statement. simsim will continue to work independently as a separate entity even after the acquisition. YouTube, however, is now finding ways to showcase simsim offers to its viewers. “For over 15 years, small businesses have used YouTube to expand their presence online -- and many of them use YouTube to reach customers outside of their local community, from<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/KAMSDESIGNERZONE/about"> Interior</a><a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/InteriorMaata/about"> Designers</a> to<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/PrashantiHQ/featured"> Silk Saree sellers</a>. By bringing simsim and YouTube together, our goal is to help small businesses and retailers in India reach new customers in even more powerful ways,” Gautam Anand, vice president of YouTube Asia Pacific, said in a <a href="https://india.googleblog.com/2021/07/helping-viewers-discover-and-buy.html">blog post</a>. simsim has raised about $15.5 million to date from marquee investors like Accel, Xiaomi’s Shunwei Capital and Good Capital. The India social commerce segment is really hot at the moment, especially after the entry of Meesho in the unicorn club in April 2021. A unicorn, in startup parlance, is a private firm valued at or more than $1 billion. Earlier this month, DealShare announced a $144<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/social-commerce-startup-dealshare-raises-144-million-from-tiger-global/articleshow/84227890.cms"> million </a>funding round led by Tiger Global and co-led by WestBridge Capital, Alpha Wave Incubation and Z3Partners. In June, CityMall raised a $22<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/citymall-a-startup-that-helps-budding-entrepreneurs-start-their-ventures-on-whatsapp-has-raised-over-22-million/articleshow/83741383.cms"> million</a> funding round led by General Catalyst and Jungle Ventures, with participation from existing investors Accel, Elevation Capital (formerly known as SAIF Partners) and WaterBridge Ventures. Meesho, on the other hand, has raised $515 million to date from SoftBank, Facebook and others. The company had raised<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/facebook-backed-meesho-raises-300-million-from-softbank-vision-fund-2-valuation-jumps-to-over-2-billion/amp_articleshow/81907721.cms?utm_campaign=fullarticle&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=inshorts"> $300 million</a> at a valuation of $2 billion. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/india-has-added-36191-new-companies-between-april-to-june-this-year/articleshow/84575166.cms">India added almost double the number of new businesses in the last three months compared to same time last year, while India was mostly under lockdown</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/jeff-bezos-intimate-messages-data-from-drug-cartels-adnan-kashoggi-the-many-things-pegasus-is-suspected-of-hacking-before-whatsapp/articleshow/71849602.cms">Jeff Bezos’ intimate messages, data from drug cartels, Jamal Kashoggi — the many things Pegasus is suspected of hacking instead of terrorists and criminals</a>

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