To take charge early 2019

WEB DESK

Popular Social messaging App WhatsApp today named Abhijit Bose as its India Head, meeting one of the key demands made by the Indian government.

According a statement from WhatsApp, Bose, who will join the platform early next year, will build WhatsApp’s first full country team outside of California and will be based in Gurugram.

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.

He joins WhatsApp from Ezetap where he has served as co-founder and CEO. Founded in 2011, Ezetap is an electronic payments company backed by top-tier Venture Capitalists.

The government has been pressing WhatsApp to develop tools to combat fake or false 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 has recently appointed a grievance officer for India.

Following multiple incidents of mob-lynching across the country, the government had slapped WhatsApp with two notices, with the second one warning that it will treat the messaging platform as an abettor of rumour propagation and legal consequences will follow if adequate checks are not put in place.