Zepto's Annualised Ad Revenue Hits ₹1,000 Cr

In a social media post, Zepto's co-founder Aadit Palicha revealed that the fast-commerce company's yearlyized advertising revenue has surpassed Rs 1,000 Crores, or Rs 83+ crore each month.

"It's been less than 3 years since we launched our Ads Business, and the team we put together has been executing like a machine. I'm honestly grateful to be working and learning from some of the smartest operators in Internet India today," Palicha stated.

Jarvis from Zepto was created with a distinct goal in mind: to increase awareness and sales for the merchants on its network. Zepto claims that the new technology has the potential to completely change the way that companies interact with their customers by providing a direct line of communication between users and advertising and building enduring brand partnerships.

Zepto's deliberate foray into advertising demonstrates their understanding of the growing significance of marketing in the quickly growing commerce sector. The business is already experiencing remarkable outcomes.

In a LinkedIn post, Rahul Mathur, Pre-Seed Investor, DeVC, says, "The underrated part of a quick commerce business is the ads platform. Ads will play a critical role in the path to profitability for QC, At a steady state, Ads Income is expected to be 3 per cent to 3.5 per cent of GOV (Gross Order Value)."

In FY23–24, Blinkit generated 400 crore in ad income (x4 from FY18). For FY24–25, Blinkit has set an ad revenue target of Rs 1,000 crore. In FY23–24, Blinkit GOV was worth Rs 12,500 crore, or... Ads already make up about 3.5 per cent of the government.

Mathur went on to say that in a stable situation, Binkit's EBITDA should be 4 per cent of GOV. The EBITDA margin for advertisements is normally about 60 per cent. Additionally, 3 per cent of GOV comes from advertisements. This indicates that advertisements account for a sizeable amount of Blinkit's overall EBITDA—roughly 45 per cent.
"Amazon India's advertising revenue for the financial year 2024 (FY24) was Rs 6,650 crore which is ~4 per cent of GOV — one could expect advertisers to pay a premium since QC is a ‘faster moving’ channel," he added.

As a result, there is space for the rapid commerce company's advertising business to expand considerably, both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of GOV. They are already using sampling as an additional high-margin revenue source in addition to advertisements.

Quick Commerce companies are not the only ones who have figured out the cash flow machine from ads — Uber Global generated $900M in ads for CY23. Closer to home — Paytm, PhonePe, Jio have also launched ad platforms.