Meesho cofounder and CEO Vidit Aatrey has made it clear that the ecommerce unicorn is in no mood to chase quick gains by copying the “platform fee” playbook that several consumer internet companies have embraced. In a recent conversation with a CNBC editor, Aatrey was quizzed on whether Meesho is “morally opposed” to introducing even a token charge on every order, despite the obvious upside to profitability.
The editor laid out the math upfront: Meesho processed about 183 crore orders last year and is tracking close to 280 crore orders on an annualised basis this year. Slapping a flat ₹1 platform fee on each order, he argued, would add around ₹280 crore directly to EBITDA, with no added complexity. “Why are you morally opposed to that? Or are you?” he asked, framing it as a straightforward monetisation opportunity rather than profiteering.
Aatrey’s response underlined how they wants to be perceived differently from peers that have steadily layered fees onto checkout. He said the company has always been “very, very customer‑focused” and that trust, once earned, cannot be risked for short‑term gains. According to him, there are “many ways of making a lot of money in the short term”, but Meesho is unwilling to pursue anything that trades off with its core principles around transparency and affordability.
Pushing back against the idea that a platform fee is just payment for a legitimate service, Aatrey pointed to the psychology of the checkout flow. When a user comes in, browses products and sees a certain price, adding even a ₹1 fee right at the end becomes a “surprise”, he said. The absolute amount may look trivial on paper, but for Meesho the issue is not the rupee – it is the moment when the customer feels the platform has moved the goalposts. “You can’t put a number to trust,” he argued, questioning at what level a fee would start to erode the confidence Meesho has built among its mostly value‑conscious shoppers.
The cofounder also linked this stance to Meesho’s long‑standing zero‑commission promise to its sellers. He recalled that for years, many in the ecosystem assumed Meesho would eventually abandon zero commission and start charging an X% take rate once it reached scale. “We never did it,” Aatrey noted, positioning the refusal to levy a platform fee in the same bucket: a deliberate choice to forgo an easy lever in favour of signalling consistency to both sides of the marketplace.
Ultimately, Aatrey framed the decision as one driven less by A/B tests and spreadsheets and more by first principles. In his view, Meesho’s long‑term value creation depends on being seen as a platform that does not nickel‑and‑dime customers at the last step or quietly reverse promises made to sellers. For investors and rivals watching the conversation, the exchange neatly captured Meesho’s current posture: willing to leave money on the table today in order to defend a trust narrative it believes will matter far more over the next decade.
Read this: Meesho IPO: Check Out the Opening Date, Price Band and Detailed Financials of the Company
Check out the interview clip of Meesho founder with CNBC Editor:
Deep answer to a very valid question by @Meesho_Official’s Vidit Aatreypic.twitter.com/fh9jRSj9dB
— Mangalam Maloo (@blitzkreigm) December 1, 2025
