It’s Snapdeal’s 6th Birthday And They Have A Wish From An Unlikely Friend

OfficeChai Team

Indian ecommerce startup Snapdeal turned 6 today.  The company celebrated its coming a long way from a deals and coupons site to a fully fledged ecommerce giant with a splash on social media under the hashtag #SnapdealTurns6.

The official Twitter account of Snapdeal was abuzz the whole day with tweets chronicling Snapdeal’s journey and relationships, both with its customers and employees.

Co-founder Kunal Bahl even related the experience of starting and growing a company to that of bringing up a child’s.

Wishes poured in from Snapdeal’s investors, media and employees.

However, the most unlikely wish came from none other than *drumroll* rival Flipkart. 

Flipkart wished Snapdeal with a “happy Birthday bro”, and the internet went berserk.

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Flipkart and Snapdeal share a strange social media relationship. Both startups have a lot in common, other than sharing the Bansal surname of the co-founders, both are unicorns with valuations above $5 billion each, their losses mount over 1000 crores, and both fight for the slice of the Indian ecommerce market, along with Amazon and now Paytm, in an intensely competitive scenario.

While collaborations amongst startup players are common these days, there has hardly been any love lost between Snapdeal and Flipkart. In fact Snapdeal’s CPO, Anand Chandrashekhran had once trolled Flipkart on twitter, and CEO Kunal Bahl had called the app-only strategy of Flipkart’s a “most consumer unfriendly move.”

However, those days seem to be behind now.

Sachin Bansal, co-founder Flipkart, in a heartening display of support to a rival, had got Snapdeal’s back when the latter was under fire for brand ambassador’s Amir Khan’s personal statements.

Whether the birthday wish on Twitter is a public facade to come across as friendly and secure, or a fine display of Indian startup ecosystem camaraderie, we don’t know, however one thing’s for sure. While Snapdeal isn’t about to receive a birthday gift in a Flipkart packaging anytime soon, some consolidation among the Indian ecommerce players would do them well to compete against the big foreign ( Read Amazon) forces.