Internet can solve problems that have never been solved before: Vidit Aatrey, Founder, Meesho

India is not a single market, it is a lot of micro markets — that’s the biggest learning we’ve had over the last 3-4 years. In the metros, almost everyone speaks English, and their habits — food and clothing included — have converged.

In a small town in Tamil Nadu, however, people behave differently. They speak a different language and their tastes, in terms of fashion, are different.

The saris they prefer in this particular town will therefore not sell well in Kerala or Maharashtra. It is a micro market with different supply, language and user experience requirements.

This is the reason why products that serve the top 50 million people, who are somehow very homogenous, fail with these heterogeneous populations. Anyone building a business for the next 500 million users has to keep in mind that India is a heterogeneous market. This market has also come online very recently. The people here spend more time on WhatsApp and other apps that have become popular recently.

So, they have become used to the interfaces of these apps.

Ecommerce websites like Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal have a standard user experience, but the users in small towns are still not comfortable using that. They are more comfortable with WhatsApp. The other important thing is that these next 500 million users, even in the pre-Internet era, bought very different things compared to what people living in metros bought. In metros, before ecommerce became so big, people used to buy items at Big Bazaar and in malls, where they would end up buying products from brands.

On the contrary, in smaller towns, people often buy unbranded products and in the long run, when there is no brand, it’s very hard to trust the product, so you trust the merchant and that’s how you get a good product.

The largest businesses in India — non-tech businesses — are ones that have distribution everywhere. So, it’s just that we haven’t had that innovation. I think the argument that you can’t make money there is just crying sour grapes. Once people figure out the right model outside metros, the opportunity is so massive that you will have larger businesses from there than those in metros. Right now, the digital economy in metros is already quite mature, but a complete whitespace exists beyond serving the top 50-100 million consumers.

It’s the most exciting thing in the ecosystem right now. The development beyond metros is still very small, so with the Internet we can solve problems that have never been solved before.

Taking Meesho’s example, we solve a very core societal problem where 90% of women do not work after marriage and, in turn, struggle to create their own identity, are low on confidence and do not feel appreciated. When we give them an opportunity to do something, they jump at it and put in so much effort. Doing this at scale will change the whole social fabric of India. People who aren’t able to find jobs will figure out something to do online. This is what’s needed today and I see a lot of first-time entrepreneurs taking a stab at doing this.