Ajit Mohan quits as head of Meta India; Manish Chopra interim chief

Meta Platforms on Thursday said Ajit Mohan, vice-president and managing director (MD) of India unit, stepped down from his role to pursue another opportunity outside of the company.

He took over as the MD of Meta India in January 2019 from his previous job as the chief executive officer of Star India’s video-streaming service Hotstar.

“Ajit has decided to step down from his role at Meta to pursue another opportunity outside of the company. Over the past four years, he has played an important role in shaping and scaling our India operations so they can serve many millions of Indian businesses, partners, and people,” said Nicola Mendelsohn, vice-president of global business group, Meta.

The company has announced Manish Chopra, who serves as the director and head partnerships as the interim chief for the India business.

According to media reports, Mohan is likely to join social media network Snap, the parent of the photo-sharing application Snapchat.

The reports came days after Snap Inc’s net loss surged 400 per cent to $360 million in the quarter that ended in September. Its revenue grew 6 per cent year-on-year, which was the first time that it dropped to single digits since the company’s public market debut in 2017.

Out of its 363 million daily active users worldwide, Snapchat has over 144 million users in India.

The ad revenue of Facebook India online services, the main business of Meta in India jumped 74 per cent in the year ended March 2021. The company reported its gross ad revenues for ~16,189 crore in a regulatory filing. The net profit grew 132 per cent ~297 crore during the same period, compared to the previous year.

India is the largest user base for Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram — the three major social media platforms owned by Meta Platforms Inc. The platform added more than 200 million users in India, under Mohan’s leadership since 2019.

“We remain deeply committed to India and have a strong leadership team in place to carry on all our work and partnerships. We are grateful for Ajit’s leadership and contribution and wish him the very best for the future,” Mendelsohn said.