Meta India head of partnerships Manish Chopra resigns

Manish Chopra, Director and Head of Partnerships at Meta India, has stepped down from his role at the social media company after four and a half years. In a LinkedIn post, Chopra noted that he would help with the transition over the next few weeks.

“It’s been 4.5 years of an incredible journey leading Meta Partnerships in India!” Chopra said in the post. “I am now looking forward to a new phase in my professional life. I will share more in due course,” he added.

Chopra, who joined Meta India in January 2019, said he started with the opportunity to lead partnerships efforts in the country, which was emerging as one of Meta’s most important markets that year.

“I am grateful to the company for trusting me with building out our efforts to drive growth & engagement across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. I am super proud of the work the team and I have done to become an ally for creators and businesses around the country,” he wrote in the LinkedIn post.

Chopra’s departure marks the fourth major exit at Meta India in the last twelve months. Last November, Meta’s India country head Ajit Mohan resigned to join rival social media company Snap and lead its APAC business.

After Mohan’s exit, Chopra served as the interim head of Meta India operations. Later that month, Meta announced the appointment of Sandhya Devanathan as the Head and Vice President of Meta India. 

Two days prior to her appointment WhatsApp India head Abhijit Bose and Director Public Policy Meta India Rajiv Aggarwal resigned from their posts.

In September last year, WhatsApp's payment business head Manesh Mahatme also quit the company after nearly 18 months.

These exits come at a time when the social media giant is focused to become a stronger and more nimble organisation, following its management theme for 2023—Year of Efficiency.

In March, Meta announced that it would lay off about 10,000 employees months after it reduced its team size by cutting over 11,000 jobs. The layoffs, affecting thousands of employees, are in keeping with Meta’s ‘Year of Efficiency’. These layoffs are part of a larger restructuring that would flatten the organisation’s hierarchy as it aims to downsize and reorganise the company and slash recruiting rates.

Meta, which generates most of its revenue from advertising, witnessed growth in this area in the first quarter of 2023, after three quarters. Its ad revenue increased to $28.1 billion from $26.9 billion in the year-ago period.