Snap ropes in ex-Google executive Pulkit Trivedi as India managing director

Social media giant Snap has appointed Pulkit Trivedi, the former director of Google Pay, as the managing director for India operations. Trivedi will report to Ajit Mohan, who joined Snap last year as Asia Pacific Head.

"Super excited to welcome Pulkit Trivedi to the Snap team as the Managing Director for Snap in India. Pulkit will be responsible for leading the organisation's Indian operations including supporting clients and partners and nurturing the creator ecosystem. Pulkit's deep expertise in building and scaling businesses and finding ways to drive outsized growth for partners will enable us to continue delighting our surging community of over 200 million Snapchatters in India," says Mohan in a LinkedIn post.

As part of his role, Trivedi will also oversee driving revenue generation, partner support and fostering the creator community in India.

The rejig is touted to be part of Snap’s attempt to make India operations more localised. The company has asked the local team to report directly to Trivedi. With over 23 years of experience, Trivedi has also worked with Meta, Intel, Microsoft and IBM.

"I am incredibly excited about my new role. India is at an extraordinary phase of digital growth and this opportunity will allow us to build something meaningful for our community and businesses in India. Thank you everyone for your warm wishes," says Trivedi.

Just like its peers, India is one of the most important markets of Snap. In June, the company announced that it has now reached more than 200 million Indians each month. "Building a localised platform experience and developing local content for Indian users has been critical to this growth, and I could not be more energised by what lays ahead for Snapchat and our Indian community, creators, clients and partners," said Mohan.

Last year Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said that the company's expansion plan in India is aiding Snap in taping feet in new emerging markets. Notably, in August last year, the Santa Monica-based social media company said that it would reduce the employee count by 20%, restructure its advertising sales unit and shut down projects such as mobile games and novelties amidst dwindling global macroeconomic uncertainties. The company also announced the appointment of three new president roles in the advertisement sales unit that will oversee the USA, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific markets.

Notably, the development comes almost a year after Mohan stepped down as Meta India's Head to join Snap. Mohan joined Meta India, then Facebook India in January 2019 as the managing director. During his tenure, WhatsApp and Instagram added 200 million users in India.