//

The parent of e-commerce marketplace firm AskMebazaar had fired more than 650 employees across its 40 offices this April

As the news of Snapdeal’s merger talks with Flipkart and Amazon, and Alibaba’s possible acquisition of ShopClues are doing the rounds, the funding crunch has claimed yet another player in the e-commerce industry.

AskMebazaar.com, a leading player in the online shopping industry in India and its online search platform AskMe, have shut down.

Although the shopping marketplace is still live, it is not accepting any new orders.

In April this year, Getit Media, the owner of AskMe and AskMebazaar, had fired more than 650 employees across its 40 offices in India.

As per reports, AskMe, which is backed by Astro Holdings and Helion Venture Partners, has been facing an investment crunch for a few months as it was unable to fresh fresh funds. Although its parent had held talks with Chinese Internet giants like Alibaba and Baidu to raise US$200 million funding, the plans did not materialise.

Founded in 2013, AskMebazaar provided a platform for SMEs to open their own online shops for free, manage catalogues and process transactions. Unlike traditional e-commerce players where sellers pay a certain per cent of the transaction, AskMebazaar charged a flat fee per transaction.

AskMe was originally started as a classified portal and owned by Network18. Getit acquired it from Network18 in 2013 and later launched AskMebazaar.

While e-commerce is flourishing in India, huge discounts and customer acquisition costs are affecting the companies. In a pessimistic funding environment, companies are under pressure from investors to reduce cash burn and do away with discounts, and focus on the core business.

The post Don’t AskMe: As Snapdeal looking for a marriage with Flipkart/Amazon, an e-commerce business shuts down in India appeared first on e27.

from e27 http://ift.tt/2b5SznS