In what would prove to be a definitive, major blowback to Twitter’s already dwindling future, its long-standing India head, Rishi Jaitly has called it quits. He himself broke the news hours ago, via series of tweets through his official twitter account.
Today, after 4 years of user/business momentum in India & the region, I’m sharing my intention to move on to new opportunities, same mission
— Rishi Jaitly (@rsjaitly) November 1, 2016
Jaitly has been at the helm of Twitter India for a long four years, literally building it up from scratch and popularising it, here in India. Apart from building and leading Twitter India, he was also responsible for Asia-Pacific expansion of the company’s Media interests. In a series of tweets announcing his departure, he has thanked all those who helped him along his journey, and vowed to continue on his mission :
My mission remains the same: harness tech/media’s scale to connect users/citizens to their voice/agency/leadership in places they care about
— Rishi Jaitly (@rsjaitly) November 1, 2016
While Twitter did report better-than-expected Q3 results, it continues to remain under immense stress, following failed acquisition deals, lay offs and closing down on Vine. Departure of yet another long standing executive will further hurt company’s future interests.
This departure becomes even more significant, considering that it comes from a region like India, where Twitter still has a hell lot of catching up to do in terms of active users. And while PM Modi, other Government officials and mainstream Media’s continued use of the platform has helped surge Twitter’s popularity among Indian Youth, it still has a lot of market to penetrate, if it plans to come even close to Facebook or Whatsapp. The platform continues to remain limited to Tier I and metro cities’ users. Jaitley hasn’t specified any reason for this sudden departure. However, current scheme of things at the global level, could have motivated his decision. The uncertainty continues.
Here’s more of Jaitly’s tweets on the subject :
I’ll always be grateful to @shaileshrao for believing in me, to @KatieS for her trust and to @dickc for leaning into our global opportunity.
— Rishi Jaitly (@rsjaitly) November 1, 2016
We have contacted Twitter for more details on this, and will get back once we hear back.
UPDATE
In a statement sent to The Tech Portal w.r.t Rishi Jaitly’s departure, a Twitter India spokesperson said,
We thank Rishi Jaitley for his contributions, entrepreneurship and leadership over the past four years at Twitter. He was our first person on the ground to bring Twitter into the high-growth Indian market; He has created bold, strategic partnerships to enter and grow new markets for Twitter; and has successfully built up our Media Partnerships teams across the Asia Pacific and Middle East.
Twitter further explained to us, that there will be a smooth transition as his last day is in late November. Post departure, Jaitly will move back to the US, but will remain engaged in India, as he pursues new opportunities to harness the power of technology and scale of mass media to empower voices, particularly in emerging markets.
