WhatsApp Appoints Abhijit Bose As India Head

WhatsApp on Wednesday announced the appointment of Ezetap co-founder, Abhijit Bose, as its head for India operations. Bose will join the instant messaging platform in early 2019. In this role, he will help drive the company’s products including WhatsApp Business app and WhatsApp Business API in India, which accounts for more than 200 million of its around 1.5-billion users, globally. “WhatsApp is delighted to announce the appointment of Abhijit Bose as head of WhatsApp India. Bose will build WhatsApp’s first full country team outside of California and will be based in Gurgaon,” the Facebook-owned company said.

Bose and his team will focus on helping businesses, both large and small connect with their customers. Earlier this year, the company released WhatsApp Business app for small business and WhatsApp Business API for large businesses that engage with customers at scale. Today, there are over one million users of these business products in India, it added. “WhatsApp is deeply committed to India and we are excited to keep building products that help people connect and support India’s fast-growing digital economy. As a successful entrepreneur himself, Abhijit knows what it takes to build meaningful partnerships that can serve businesses across India,” WhatsApp’s COO Matt Idema said.

Bose joins WhatsApp from digital payments solutions provider Ezetap where he has served as CEO. He co-founded the company in 2011. Bose, a graduate of Harvard Business School and Cornell University, has is the past worked with Oracle and Bain & Co. “WhatsApp is special and can be a major partner for financial inclusion and economic growth in India. It’s not only how so many families stay in touch, but increasingly it’s how businesses are engaging with their customers,” Bose said. This is WhatsApp’s second leadership appointment for India, after the company came under pressure from the government to curb the spread of fake and provocative content on its platform.

In September, WhatsApp appointed a grievance officer for India, Komal Lahiri, who has been tasked to deal with concerns and complaints raised by users regarding issues including fake and provocative content.Unlike Bose, Lahiri is based at WhatsApp’s Menlo Park office in California, an issue that has been flagged by the ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY).

MeitY conveyed to the company that top leadership related with India operations should be based in India. These developments come after WhatsApp’s CEO Chris Daniels met Union law & IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on August 21 and assured him that the company will appoint a grievance officer for India as well as will incorporate the company as a corporate entity as per Indian laws. – Financial Express