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<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>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="3658" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword>’s ecommerce market is expected to reach $130 billion by 2025. </li><li>Social ecommerce firms in India like Meesho are performing better than traditional ecommerce firms. </li><li>The world’s biggest ecommerce company is struggling to gain a foothold in India’s Tier 2 and 3 cities due to regulatory setbacks.</li></ul><keyword id="18635" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="amazon" source="Orion">Amazon</keyword> marked a spectacular entry into India in 2013 and not just because <keyword id="191583" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="jeff-bezos" source="Orion">Jeff Bezos</keyword> sat atop a colourful truck or it invested $7 billion into the market. India is one of the biggest emerging ecommerce markets globally, estimated to reach $130 billion by 2025. Almost ten years later, its success is being questioned by a wealth management firm, Bernstein, in its latest report. Amazon is now the second largest player behind Flipkart with a gross merchandise value of $18-20 billion and has over 170 million products. But it’s yet to turn profitable in a market where the average order value is below $10 (approx. ₹800). “Besides growth-related investments, profitability has also been impacted by a higher mix of low margin product categories (e.g., smartphones with sub 5% net margins). Amazon has struggled to scale volumes in higher margin categories such as fashion and beauty and personal care,” said the Bernstein report. Fashion has seen the highest growth in the last few years, and so has grocery. But the latter is led by quick commerce players like Dunzo, Zepto and <keyword id="12724311" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="blinkit" source="Orion">Blinkit</keyword>. Amazon and Flipkart are market leaders in mobiles and consumer electronics. But the share of this segment in the ecommerce market is declining. Indian regulations give <keyword id="10926" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="reliance" source="Orion">Reliance</keyword> an edge over Amazon 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. As per the report, these markets account for around 50% of all e-commerce sales, and they’re growing. “Reliance leads in India with a strong 1P business with over 15,000 store retail footprints. Flipkart is the frontrunner in the apparel category and social ecommerce firm Meesho is winning in tier 2/3 cities where Amazon struggles to perform,” it said. 1P business is where retailers have an online presence like Reliance with a wide brick and mortar footprint. Amazon however is a 3P player who works with sellers. The regulations in India are skewed towards the former, and tougher for MNCs. “Regulations don't allow for an inventory-led 1P model for a foreign entity like Amazon. The company has made investments into local retailers like <keyword id="64373" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="shoppers-stop" source="Orion">Shoppers Stop</keyword> (fashion), More (grocery), and a rumoured stake in <keyword id="1560087" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="ecom-express" source="Orion">Ecom Express</keyword> (logistics) but integration has been limited as the regulations don't allow for full control,” the report said. At the same time, its key competitor Reliance scaled up its ecommerce operations to around 19% of core retail sales, thanks to its 15,000 stores and ability to manage an inventory-led model. “Amazon's management attrition has also increased recently, potentially signaling difficulties achieving desired scale,” the report said. Amazon’s worldwide consumer CEO Dave Clark left the company after 23 years in 2022. Here’s where ecommerce growth is at The sweet spot for ecommerce growth in India is Tier 2+, the report says, which is a market that’s seeking products tailored to their needs. <keyword id="3030142" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="myglamm" source="Orion">MyGlamm</keyword>, <keyword id="1932100" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="bewakoof" source="Orion">Bewakoof</keyword> and Sleepy Owl are able to achieve this with a large chunk of their business coming from these towns. However, due to regulations, Amazon cannot make headway here too. The inability to operate a 1P model has limited the availability of private labels versus the competition, which further pressures margins, the report says. “Despite the importance of the market, we estimate that it contributes less than 5% to Amazon's overall value. At Amazon's current valuation, we see the India business as a call option for Amazon investors, as long as the company is disciplined around capital allocation,” says Bernstein. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/upcoming-new-smartphones-launching-in-india-in-september-2022/slidelist/93945270.cms">Upcoming smartphones launching in India in September 2022</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/cash-rich-family-offices-of-small-towns-are-buying-into-the-india-startup-story/articleshow/93944024.cms">Cash-rich family offices of small towns are buying into the India startup story</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/personalities/news/meet-laxman-narsimhan-the-pune-boy-wholl-soon-be-the-ceo-of-starbucks/slidelist/93941369.cms">Meet Laxman Narsimhan, the Pune boy who’ll soon be the CEO of Starbucks</a>

Amazon is struggling in India unlike Reliance, Meesho says wealth management firm Bernstein

<ul><li>Edtech company Byju's is now <keyword id="3658" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="India">India</keyword>'s most valuable unicorn startup with a valuation of $16.5 billion, surpassing fintech company <keyword id="6357120" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="paytm">Paytm</keyword>'s $16 billion valuation.</li><li>Byju's is the 11th most valuable startup in the world.</li><li>The total number of unicorns worldwide is 708 with a valuation of $ 2319 billion. Chinese company Bytedance, the parent company of TikTok, is the most valuable startup in the world with a valuation of $140 billion.</li></ul>Edtech company Byju's is now India's most valuable unicorn startup with a valuation of $16.5 billion, surpassing fintech company Paytm's $16 billion valuation. As per CB Insights data, as of June 2021, Byju's is the 11th most valuable startup in the world. The total number of unicorns worldwide is 708 with a valuation of $ 2319 billion. Chinese company Bytedance, the parent company of TikTok, is the most valuable startup in the world with a valuation of $140 billion. Byju's investors include Tencent Holdings, Lightspeed India Partners and Sequoia Capital India. It has recently raised $350 million from UBS, private equity giant Blackstone, Abu Dhabi state fund ADQ, Phoenix Rising and video conference firm Zoom's founder Eric Yuan. One97 Communications, the parent company of Byju's, has a valuation of $16 billion with investors like Intel Capital, Sapphire Ventures and Alibaba Group. A unicorn company, or unicorn startup, is a private company with a valuation over $1 billion. As of June 2021, there are more than 700 unicorns around the world. Popular former unicorns include Airbnb, Facebook and <keyword id="6355629" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="google">Google</keyword>. The variants include a decacorn, valued at over $10 billion, and a hectocorn, valued at over $100 billion, CB Insights said. Oyo Rooms is valued at $9 billion with investors like SoftBank Group, Sequoia Capital India and Lightspeed India Partners. The National Stock Exchange is valued at $6.5 billion with investors including TA Associates, SoftBank Group and GS Growth. Ola Cabs is valued at $6.3 billion and has investors like Accel Partners, SoftBank Group and Sequoia Capital. Zomato is valued at $5.4 billion with investors including Sequoia Capital and VY Capital. Another food delivery chain, Swiggy, is vaued at $5 billion and its investors include Accel India, SAIF Partners and Norwest Venture Partners. Internet software company Dream11 is valued at $5 billion with investors including Kaalari Capital, Tencent Holdings and Steadview Capital. Logistics company Udaan is valued at $ 3.1 billion and has investors including DST Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners and <keyword id="10387" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Microsoft">Microsoft</keyword> ScaleUp. Fintech company Razorpay is valued at $3 billion with investors like Y Combinator, Tiger Global Management and Matrix Partners India. Fintech company Pine Labs is also valued at $3 billion with investors namely MasterCard, Temasek and PayPal Ventures. Logistics company Delivery is another firm that is valued at $3 billion with investors including Times Internet, Nexus Venture Partners and SoftBank Group. Policybazaar is valued at $2.4 billion, Renew Power at $2.28 billion, fintech company CRED at $2.2 billion, consumer company FirstCry at $2.1 billion, software company Meesho at $2.1 billion, while <keyword id="3358959" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="ShareChat">Sharechat</keyword> is also valued at $2.1 billion. Edtech copany Unacademy is valued at $2 billion, ecommerce company Urban Company is valued at $2.1 billion, BillDesk at $1.9 billion and DigitInsurance at the same number. Lenskart is valued at $1.5 billion, Five Star Business Finance at $1.4 billion, Rivigo at $1.07 billion, Snapdeal at $1 billion as also Inmobi, Ola Electric, Cars 24, Daily Hunt, Infra Market and Groww. (Sanjeev Sharma can be reached at Sanjeev.s@ians.in) --IANS san/arm

Byju's most valuable startup in India and 11th in the world with a valuation of $16.5 billion

As more and more companies across the spectrum sack employees amid the global meltdown, at least 853 tech companies worldwide have laid off about 137,492 employees to date, and the tally is only going north amid recession fears. According to data from layoffs.fyi, a crowdsourced database of tech layoffs, 1,388 tech companies have fired a total of 233,483 employees since the onset of Covid-19, but 2022 has been the worst for the tech sector. As of mid-November, more than 73,000 workers in the US tech sector have been laid off in mass-level job cuts led by companies like <keyword id="399907" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="meta" source="Orion">Meta</keyword>, Twitter, Salesforce, Netflix, Cisco, Roku, and others. Robinhood, Glossier, and Better are just a few of the tech companies that have notably trimmed their headcount in 2022, according to Crunchbase. Big Tech companies like Amazon and PC and printer major HP Inc have joined the global layoff season and were set to lay off more than 10,000 and up to 6,000 employees in days to come, respectively. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has warned employees that there will be more layoffs at the company in early 2023 "as leaders continue to make adjustments". The massive job cuts have hit several divisions, especially the Alexa virtual assistant business reportedly set to lose $10 billion this year as the voice assistant never managed to create an ongoing revenue stream. Alphabet, <keyword id="6355629" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="google" source="Orion">Google</keyword>'s parent company, is reportedly gearing up to lay off about 10,000 "poor performing" employees, or 6 per cent of its workforce. According to a report in The Information, Google plans to ease out 10,000 employees through a new ranking and performance improvement plan. In India, nearly 16,000 employees have been asked to go by about 44 startups, led by edtech companies like BYJU'S, Unacademy, and <keyword id="2016957" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="vedantu" source="Orion">Vedantu</keyword>, as VC funding dried up. Other tech startups and unicorns that have laid off employees in India include Ola, Cars24, Meesho, LEAD, MPL, Innovaccer, Udaan and more. Meanwhile, thousands of contractual employees have also been let go, making 2022 the harshest year for workers in the technology sector. The startup ecosystem's funding winter could last another 12 to 18 months and the industry may face "a lot of turmoil and volatility", <keyword id="6354742" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="flipkart" source="Orion">Flipkart</keyword> CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy has warned. Indian startups are going through steep hiring cuts and the hiring of permanent employees has dipped by a significant 61 per cent in the last 12 months, according to the annual insights report by <keyword id="15395027" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="razorpayx-payroll" source="Orion">RazorpayX Payroll</keyword>, the business banking platform of Razorpay. Only two startups in India, Shiprocket and OneCard, attained unicorn status (valuation $1 billion and above) in the July-September period, according to the latest PwC India report. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/netflix-working-on-brand-new-aaa-pc-game-project/articleshow/95740337.cms">Netflix working on 'brand-new AAA PC game' project</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/binance-looks-to-hire-8k-people-by-2023-end-ceo/articleshow/95716850.cms">Binance looks to hire 8K people by 2023 end: CEO</a>

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

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

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Amazon is struggling in India unlike Reliance, Meesho says wealth management firm Bernstein

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Byju's most valuable startup in India and 11th in the world with a valuation of $16.5 billion

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853 tech firms lay off over 137,492 workers globally, more job cuts coming

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