Ajit Mohan, who served as head of Meta in India, has reportedly left the firm to join rival social media company Snap. Mohan is said to take up the role of President of APAC business at Snap, according to a report by TechCrunch. Mohan joined Facebook in January 2019 as a Vice President and Managing Director of its India business. Since then, Facebook has undergone several changes including shifting under the newly formed parent company Meta. During his tenure, Mohan played a crucial role in Meta’s family of apps including in Instagram and WhatsApp adding over 200 million users in India.
Mohan also reportedly drove several large investments in the country for Meta, including a collaboration with local telecom giant Jio and attempts to monetise WhatsApp. Meta has identified India as its largest consumer market base and Mohan as the company head played a critical role in the company expanding its user base in the country.
“Ajit has decided to step down from his role at Meta to pursue another opportunity outside of the company,” Nicola Mendelsohn, Vice President of Global Business Group at Meta, said in a statement.
Prior to joining Facebook, Mohan assumed the Senior Vice President position at Star TV, where he helped launch Hotstar, its own digital streaming service. Mohan later went on to head Hotstar as CEO for four years before eventually joining Facebook in 2019. At Star, he played a key role in localising the content strategy of Hotstar, which included banking on local movies, original shows, and acquiring sports streaming rights to major sporting events in the country.
“Over the last 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. 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,” added Mendelsohn in her statement.
According to sources accessed by TechCrunch, Mohan will join rival social media company Snap, which is the parent company to Snapchat, as President of its APAC business. Mohan would be joining at a tremulous time for the company shadowed by its shares plunging about 25 percent last month after it forecast zero revenue for the current quarter. Mohan would look to overturn the fortunes of Snap, which cited a weakening economy and fierce competition as a reason for its slump in growth.
Snap did not immediately respond to a request for comment.