
Source: Livemint
Popular messaging app WhatsApp on Wednesday named Abhijit Bose as its India head, meeting one of the key demands made by the Indian government. This is as per a report in the MINT newspaper.
Bose, who will join the messaging platform early next year, will build WhatsApp’s first full country team outside of California and will be based in Gurugram, WhatsApp said in a statement. Bose and his team will focus on helping businesses, both large and small, connect with their customers, 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,” Matt Idema, chief operating officer of WhatsApp, said. As a successful entrepreneur himself, Bose knows what it takes to build meaningful partnerships that can serve businesses across India, he added.
Abhijit Bose joins WhatsApp from Ezetap where he served as co-founder and CEO. Founded in 2011, Ezetap is an electronic payments company backed by top venture capitalists.
The appointment comes at a time when Facebook-owned WhatsApp has been under tremendous pressure to put in place a mechanism to curb fake messages on its platform.
The government has been pressing WhatsApp to develop tools to combat fake messages, and also identify message originators. Apart from the traceability request, the government had asked WhatsApp to set up a local corporate presence and appoint a grievance officer to address complaints. Whatsapp recently appointed a grievance officer for India.
Following multiple incidents of mob-lynching across the country, the government slapped WhatsApp with two notices, with the second one warning that it would treat the messaging platform as an abettor of rumour propagation and legal consequences would follow if adequate checks were not put in place.