Meesho adds 8 vernacular languages to tap 377 million users

E-commerce platform Meesho, which is backed by Facebook and SoftBank, has added eight new vernacular languages to the app and is targeting 377 million potential users across different regions.

Meesho said it had added Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia. With this, Meesho customers can select their preferred language for using the app and see product information, placing and tracking orders, and making payments on android phones.

The company said that about half of its users were new to e-commerce and have probably never transacted on such platforms. By introducing local languages on the platform, Meesho aims to make shopping easier for them.

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"This is a natural step in our journey of becoming the single shopping destination for the next billion users in India," Meesho chief technology officer Sanjeev Barnwal said in a statement.

Meesho turned unicorn in April 2021 after a funding round led by SoftBank.

Last year, Meesho introduced Hindi as a language option on the platform, which has seen a high adoption rate of 20 percent to date.

"The company aims to target a potential user base of around 377 million, as per data shared by Kantar ICUBE 2021. The majority of Meesho customers come from tier 2 and beyond cities like Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Jamshedpur and non-Hindi-speaking states, where English or Hindi may not always be the language of choice," the statement said.

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Meesho claims that the transacting user base on its platform has surged around 5.5 times since March 2021, while the assortment has grown nine times to around 72 million during the same period.

It has 125 million monthly active users on its platform. Customers from tier 2 and beyond markets account for around 80 percent of all shoppers and have been key drivers of growth for Meesho.