With the acquisitions
of Gimlet Media (pro-
ducer of Homecoming),
Anchor (a popular cre-
ation app), and The
Ringer (Bill Simmons’s
website), Spotify is
turning its data analyt-
ics prowess toward
podcasting. “We’re
bringing more
discovery-focused
offerings to help artists
find new fans,” says
chief content officer
Dawn Ostroff. The new
Your Daily Drive playlist
offers listeners a per-
sonalized mix of music,
news, and podcasts.
Spotify is introducing
microcasts and in
January launched a tool
that inserts ads based
on a listener’s gender,
age, and device type.FOR BECOMING
A PODCASTING
POWERHOUSE15
MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES 2020FOR ADDING
SHOPPING CARTS
TO SOCIAL
POSTSIn a country where
e-commerce
remains relatively
nascent (despite
more than 450 mil-
lion internet users)
and delivery logistics
imposingly difficult,
Bengaluru, India–
based social com-
merce platform
Meesho has man-
aged to turn more
than 2 million people
into digital shop-
keepers. The app lets
users build curated
online stores by
selecting merchan-
dise from more than
21,000 small andmedium suppliers,
which offer apparel,
jewelry, and new
product categories
like home and
kitchen. Users can
then market these
goods to their per-
sonal networks
through Facebook,
Instagram, and
WhatsApp. (Meesho
takes a 10% to 20%
sales commission.)
Many of Meesho’s
resellers are home-
makers in India who
use the app to
achieve financial
freedom without
leaving the house.These budding
entrepreneurs “do
not have the capital
to purchase raw
materials to get [a
boutique] off the
ground,” says
cofounder and co-
CEO Vidit Aatrey.
Meesho merchants
don’t have to carry
inventory; suppliers
drop-ship items after
they’re ordered.
Resellers also have
the ability to send
payment links
directly through
social media, most
notably WhatsApp,
which has more than
400 million users in
India. The four-year-
old company has
been growing
quickly (alongside
India’s burgeoning
4G infrastructure): It
currently has 2 mil-
lion resellers and a
presence in 700 cit-
ies and towns across
India and Indonesia.MARCH/APRIL 2020 PHOTOGRAPH BY MAHESH SHANTARAM FASTCOMPANY.COM 53