New Meesho looks like old ShopClues

Why read this story?

Editor's note: After Kunal Shah’s CRED, Meesho is the company the Indian startup ecosystem can’t make up its mind about.  For the longest time, Meesho was a social commerce company. Small-town resellers, many of whom were women, would use Meesho’s catalogue of products to service orders in their neighbourhood, relying heavily on WhatsApp and Facebook. Last year, however, Meesho started transitioning into an e-commerce company for small businesses, in many ways competing with the much larger Flipkart and Amazon India.  Pivoting to a new business model like that for a company valued at $2.1 billion is unusual, to say the least. Companies this mature and with a clear fundraising history don’t just change tack overnight. The core thesis of the business is locked in. If things don’t work out, a large startup like this might expand to include multiple revenue streams, experiment with other verticals and shrivel up if unable to fight, but rarely would it completely alter its core proposition.  At a valuation of $4.9 billion now, Meesho has a lot of cheerleaders, but it also has sceptics.  Why the pivot …