Nikhil Gandhi Give up: Breaking: TikTok India CEO Nikhil Gandhi resigns practically a 12 months after ban
TikTok India CEO Nikhil Gandhi, recently appointed head of the Middle East, Africa, Turkey and South Asia has his papers almost a year after the Indian government stopped operations in India, citing sovereignty and national security issues submitted.
According to sources, Gandhi, who also led efforts to sell TikTok’s India business for the past few months, is currently exploring options with some leading Indian startups looking to expand their businesses, particularly with an AI technology and machine learning component.
Tiktok did not respond to the mail from ET at the time the story was published.
Gandhi joined TikTok from Times Network in October 2019.
“Nikhil was instrumental in popularizing Tiktok in India. Under his leadership, the app revolutionized content creation in India
by creating a brand new ecosystem for content creators that gives people from all walks of life the same opportunities to show their talent. Tiktoker actually became a word in the Indian lexicon, ”said a former senior Tiktok official.
Under Gandhi, TikTok had started generating 20-25 rupees in advertising by the third quarter of 2019.
The outgoing CEO was also instrumental in getting the Bollywood stars – Deepika Padukone, Jacqueline Fernandes, etc. – onto the popular platform.
Industry experts estimate that TikTok would have had between Rs 200-250 in sales in fiscal year 19-20.
ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming and ex-TikTok CEO Kevin Mayers hired Gandhi to unwind their mega-plans for India – a $ 1 billion investment in Indian business over three years – before the company was called upon to be Close business.
At the time the Indian store closed, the Chinese app had more than 200 million users in India.
TikTok was completely banned in India on June 29, 2020 by the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, along with numerous other Chinese apps. The ban became final in January 2021.
Earlier, ET had reported that most TikTok employees had left for roles like sales and marketing, and some technology team members had been transferred to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) cluster, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), along with Gandhi goods) and the Turkish region.
Shortly before the shop closed, TikTok had started to offer tough competition to Facebook and YouTube. On average, users spent more than an hour a day with the app, and the number of active users per day was more than 100 million.
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