Meta India head Ajit Mohan departs to join Snap

Ajit Mohan, the head of Meta in India, has left the firm and has agreed to join rival Snap, according to sources familiar with the matter. At Snap, Mohan will serve as the President of the APAC business, two sources said.

Mohan joined Meta, called Facebook then, in January 2019 as a VP and MD of the India business. During his stay at the firm, Facebook’s family of apps including Instagram and WhatsApp added over 300 million users in India, made a series of ambitious investments in the country, including cutting a $5.7 billion check to Indian telecom giant Jio Platforms, and ramped up the commerce engine of WhatsApp.

The company also conceptualized and used India as the test market to build a range of services, including Reels. Facebook grew its revenue in India by over 70% to $2.1 billion in the financial year that ended in March.

During his tenure, Meta went through significant changes in India, which it counts as its largest market by users. Ankhi Das, a top Facebook executive in India, left the firm in 2020 after she was alleged to interfere in how the company enforced its hate-speech policy in the country. The company, which has denied any wrongdoing, has since further improved its dialogue with the government bodies.

A McKinsey alum, Mohan rose to the stardom at Star, where he played an instrumental role in getting the entertainment conglomerate to launch a streaming service, called Hotstar.

Along with Uday Shankar, Mohan also played a key part in the content strategy of Hotstar, banking on local films and shows and sports streaming. The timely bet on online streaming and cricket helped Hotstar become a crown jewel in Disney’s portfolio after the Fox acquisition.

“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.

“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 greatest for the future.”

Snap has ramped up efforts in India in recent years and made a push to introduce a series of localized features. The app quadrupled its user base to 100 million users in the country in the past three years, according to data from Data.ai and SensorTower.