/startuppedia/media/media_files/2025/12/02/copy-of-copy-of-web-8-2025-12-02-11-39-13.png)
Meesho CEO Vidit Aatrey
Indian e-commerce players such as Zomato, Swiggy, and Amazon have all introduced platform fees and are slowly raising them. However, in a recent interview, Meesho CEO Vidit Aatrey disclosed that his company will not introduce a platform fee.
Meesho CEO opens up in recent interview
In the CNBC-TV18 interview, he was asked why Meesho wouldn’t charge even a nominal ₹1 platform fee, which could translate into an additional ₹280 crore in EBITDA given the company’s order volume.
Aatrey revealed a philosophical approach that sets Meesho apart in the country’s increasingly fee-heavy e-commerce landscape.
Interviewer Mangalam Maloo asked: “Last year you did close to 183 crore orders that were placed. This year, first half, you’ve done nearly 125. You annualize that closer to 280 thereabouts. Even if you charge a Rs. 1 platform fee, that’s straight Rs. 280 crore to the EBITDA. Why are you so opposed to that?”
Aatrey replied: “We are actually, and I would say we’ve been a very, very customer-focused company from the beginning. And we believe it takes a lot of effort to earn the trust of your customers. And anything which basically goes against some of those principles we will not do. There could be many ways of making a lot of money in the short term, but if it trades off with some of our principles, we actually don’t want to take that.”
When Maloo argued that a platform fee isn’t profiteering but rather a legitimate charge for services provided, Aatrey explained: “If you introduce something at the end to a customer, and they come onto your platform, they look at a particular price and they suddenly get a surprise at the end… that’s the thing, right? It’s the trust. You can’t put a number to the trust. At what number do you break the trust and at what number do you not break the trust? I think some of this comes less from AB experiments. It comes a lot from principles that you believe in.”
The Meesho CEO further explained: “For the longest time, people always believed that at some point in time we will get rid of zero commission. They said, ‘Hey, why don’t you make some X percentage?’ And we never did it, right? And the same thing holds true here. I think it takes a lot of effort to earn the trust of your ecosystem. And we want to make sure that trust is right, because that’s the only way you will create value in the long term.”
Incidentally, Zomato and Swiggy have both imposed and subsequently increased their platform fees multiple times, with charges now ranging from ₹3 to ₹12.5 per order depending on the city and service.
Amazon India levied a platform fee of ₹5 for orders below ₹500 earlier this year.
Meesho, on the other hand, focuses on Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets, with a customer base that scrutinises every rupee spent.
The platform has helped individual resellers and small businesses to reach consumers directly, building its brand around accessibility and affordability.