Rise of open network e-commerce: Shireesh Joshi, Chief Business Officer of the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), took the stage at the Republic Business Emerging Technology Awards 2024 to discuss the impact of ONDC on India’s e-commerce industry. Since its inception in January last year, ONDC has grown exponentially, highlighting the rise of digital commerce in the country.
“In January last year, we started with 1,000 orders that month. A year and a half later, we achieved 10 million orders,” Joshi revealed, sharing the rapid growth and market potential of ONDC. “This tells us how journeys begin and how they evolve over time. The future is remarkably sophisticated.”
Joshi contrasted the traditional closed network model of e-commerce, where buyers and sellers must be on the same platform, limiting interoperability and fostering the growth of only a few dominant companies.
“All e-commerce is a closed network which means buyers and sellers need to be on the same platform, and you can’t interoperate with other platforms. What closed networks lead to is the growth of limited companies as sellers shift toward popular choices. That is how e-commerce has grown over the years,” he explained.
In stark contrast, ONDC represents a paradigm shift. “ONDC is not a product that you simply use; ONDC is what your imagination will help you be. If you can imagine it, ONDC will help you realise that imagination,” Joshi underlined.
Joshi also stated that businesses are not just transacting digitally but are also discovering new boundaries for revenue and growth opportunities that would have been unattainable without an open network. “Open-network is about invention at the speed of imagination. ONDC is not a technology but a movement, and it’s a movement that will take e-commerce where you take it,” he said.
The Open Network for Digital Commerce, a private non-profit Section 8 company, was established by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade of the Government of India to foster open e-commerce. Its mission is to democratise digital commerce, enabling more players to participate and thrive in the digital marketplace.
