How social commerce is becoming the new frontier in online shopping

Start-ups such as Meesho, VMall and BulBul.TV are getting into areas that were left untouched by e-commerce majors

Just when you thought e-commerce was the next big thing in the economy, the venture capital tap has opened up to a slightly different set of enterprises -- tech start-ups that use the power of social media to enable commerce.

‘Social commerce’, which consists of firms like Meesho, VMall, BulBul.TV, among a dozen others, is the latest buzzword doing rounds and has the caught the fancy of internet observers across the board. Big venture capital (VC) investors such as SAIF Partners, Accel, Omidyar, Naspers and Sequoia are among many others who already entered the game.

By some estimates, over $300