Snap has restructured its reporting system in India and named Pulkit Trivedi as the new country head, underscoring the increasing importance of the South Asian market to the company.
Snapchat’s parent company will now have its Indian team report directly to Trivedi, giving India more autonomy over growth, partnership and market development strategies. Trivedi will report to Ajit Mohan, the Asia Pacific head of Snap, who joined the company from Meta last year.
Pulkit joins Snap from Google, where he served as the director of Google Pay for the India business team. Trivedi will be responsible for leading Snap’s Indian operations including driving revenue, supporting partners and nurturing the creator ecosystem.
Previously, Meta employed a similar model for India but altered it a few years back, in a move that rattled many senior leaders in the country.
“Under a new operational structure, the Growth, Market Development, Partnerships, Content and Creator Ecosystem teams will now report directly to Trivedi,” Snap said in a statement.
The move comes as India becomes increasingly important for Snap. A series of changes, including focus on localized features helped Snapchat make inroads with the wider community in India, including marketers. Snap witnessed its monthly active user base soar to 200 million in the country, doubling in under two years. Snap has achieved a 60% reach among the 13-24 age group in India, according to Wells Fargo’s estimates.
In the last one year, Snap has also hired several regional heads across the globe and sought to tweak how those regions are operated. Last year, it hired Mohan, formerly the head of Meta India.
“I am thrilled to welcome Pulkit to the Snap team at such an exciting time for our organization, both in India as well as more broadly across Asia-Pacific,” said Mohan in a statement.
“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. Unifying our local teams under this new structure will set the right stage for making accelerated investments in India and enable us to further fuel the growth of our community and partners.”
India, the world’s most populated country, presents potentially the final significant growth opportunity for American tech behemoths searching for their next wave of several hundred million users. Google and Meta have amassed over half a billion digitally connected Indians monthly. However, in the past few years, particularly for Meta, expansion has decelerated due to challenges in accessing a segment of the population with minimal or no internet and smartphone connectivity.
Originally published at techcrunch.com