New Delhi: Manish Chopra, who served as the head of partnerships for Meta’s operations in India, has decided to step down from his position after a successful four-and-a-half-year tenure with the company. This announcement marks the fourth major departure from Meta India in the past year, following the exits of Ajit Mohan, the former India head, and Rajiv Aggarwal, the public policy head, in November 2022. Abhijit Bose, who was leading WhatsApp India, also left the company around the same time. Mohan and Aggarwal have since joined Snap Inc and Samsung, respectively, while Bose expressed plans to work on a new startup.
After Ajit Mohan’s departure, Manish Chopra assumed the interim leadership role for a brief period of two months until Sandhya Devanathan took over as Meta’s India head on January 1, 2023. In a statement on LinkedIn, Chopra mentioned that he would assist with the transition process over the next few weeks. Sandhya Devanathan, the VP of Meta India, expressed gratitude for Chopra’s contributions, stating that he played a crucial role in scaling the company’s business and strengthening relationships with creators and businesses. Chopra initially joined Meta India (formerly known as Facebook India) in 2019 as the director and head of partnerships, responsible for driving growth and engagement across Meta’s family of apps, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. With over a billion monthly users, India represents the largest market for these apps.
During his tenure, Chopra led Meta’s partnerships efforts in various areas, including media, content, creator initiatives, payments, and the business communication platform Workspace. He expressed pride in the work accomplished by his team, emphasizing their role as an ally for creators and businesses throughout the country. Chopra also revealed his excitement for the next phase of his professional journey, promising to share more details in due course. Prior to joining Meta, Chopra co-founded and served as CEO of the app-only deals marketplace Little, which was later acquired by Paytm in 2017. He was also a co-founder of the online apparel brand Zovi. Additionally, Chopra had an extensive nine-year stint at Microsoft in multiple roles and spent nearly two years at Oracle.
Chopra’s departure coincides with Meta’s cost-cutting measures, including the layoff of 21,000 employees worldwide. The company implemented the first round of 11,000 job cuts in November 2022, followed by an announcement of an additional 10,000 layoffs in March 2023, expected to be completed by May 2023. To enhance efficiency, Meta has taken several steps to reduce costs and become a more agile organization. These measures were necessitated by factors such as a challenging macroeconomic climate affecting advertising demand, the impact of Apple’s iOS privacy restrictions on Meta’s advertising business, and increased competition from platforms like TikTok.
Despite these challenges, Meta reported a return to growth in advertising sales last month, following three consecutive quarters of revenue decline on a yearly basis. In Q1 2023, the company posted a 3 percent year-on-year increase in revenue, reaching $28.6 billion, while profits declined by 24 percent to $5.7 billion. Meta does not disclose country-specific revenue breakdowns in its quarterly reports. For the financial year FY22, Meta India recorded a total income of Rs 2,324 crore, representing a significant 56.5 percent increase from the previous financial year’s Rs 1,485.1 crore. The gross advertising revenue during the period surged by 74 percent year-on-year to Rs 16,189 crore. Net profit more than doubled, reaching Rs 297 crore, reflecting a 132 percent increase from the previous year.
