gross merchandise value
Gross merchandise value is the grand feast of figures swirling across a platform. It discounts real profit in favor of a fleeting intoxicant served to investors and executives. Every completed transaction is counted in its glamorous sum, while returns and unpaid cancellations are conveniently ignored—a metric built on selective memory. It acts like a smoke screen, obscuring the true picture. The genuine value lies buried in the dark realm of profit and loss statements that follow.