The opportunities and challenges for India's social commerce start-ups

Industry experts say there are, however, some basic hurdles that video-based commerce needs to overcome to be successful in India

Last week, Google’s YouTube acquired Delhi-based vernacular social commerce media start-up simsim, which serves as a platform to connect local businesses, influencers and customers. With this, simsim, which is currently available in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and English, joins a list of growing start-ups in the sector that are making headlines in India.

Experts say while the opportunity is huge, video-based social commerce, especially livestream-based e-commerce, will take a few more years to mature. There are currently three main models of social commerce in India, according to consulting firm RedSeer.

The first is the “reseller model”, where the app user (called