SoftBank-backed Meesho adds 8 Indian languages to tap more users

Social commerce platform seeks to widen reach during festival season in the country

Meesho, the SoftBank-backed social commerce platform, said on Wednesday it is adding eight new Indian languages to its platform as it seeks new users during the festival season.

Meesho customers can now use Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia for accessing accounts, product information, placing and tracking orders, and making payments on Android phones.

"About 50 per cent of our users are new to e-commerce and have probably never transacted on such platforms before,” said Sanjeev Barnwal, founder and chief technology officer or Meesho. “By introducing vernacular languages on the platform, Meesho aims to eliminate language