Gross Merchandise Value (GMV)

The total value of transactions made through a marketplace, before the platform's share is taken.

Example

A marketplace facilitating 50,000,000 of sales has 50,000,000 of GMV.

GMV is not revenue. Multiply by the take rate to find what the platform actually earns.

Take Rate — The share of transaction value a marketplace or payments business keeps as revenue.

SaaS lives on retention; marketplaces live on liquidity and take rate — Software businesses are judged on recurring revenue, expansion and margins. Marketplaces are judged on whether buyers and sellers reliably find each other, and how much of each transaction the platform keeps. (12 min)
How a company makes money determines what good numbers look like — Subscription software, marketplaces, transactional businesses, advertising, hardware and services each have different margins, growth patterns and risks. The same metric means different things across them. (11 min)