Facebook hires Anand Chandrasekaran in Messenger app push: report

Pic Credit: Mint

By Nandita Mathur

September 20, 2016

Facebook Inc. has hired Anand Chandrasekaran, an entrepreneurial product leader, with experience of working with technology companies both in India and the Silicon Valley to help develop strategies for its Facebook Messenger app. This was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Monday.

Chandrasekaran will assume a global leadership role working on strategies and partnerships for Messenger, Facebook’s high-powered technological platform that enables businesses and developers to interact with a billion users globally, according to the report. He will be based in Facebook’s Menlo Park office, according to sources that did not wish to be named.

Chandrasekaran was most recently chief product officer at Snapdeal, one of India’s leading e-commerce start up companies. Before that, he was chief product officer at Bharti Airtel, a leading cellular operator globally with 300 million subscribers driving Wynk Music, APIs and Airtel Money. From 2011 to 2014, Chandrasekaran was with Yahoo as a senior director for search products and mobile products.

Chandrasekaran holds a MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and a B.S. in Communications Engg. from PSG College of Technology (India).

In 2010, he was named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He is also an active angel investor with 19 investments across consumer internet, p2p and b2c marketplaces, Fintech, SaaS and hardware.

Clearly, Chandrasekaran’s diverse global experience makes him a good fit to help Messenger grow beyond being just a tool of communication and leverage it to attract brands and businesses.

It was in July 2016 that Messenger had reached 1 billion monthly active users mark, making the app part of the coveted one billion user club that includes only a handful of apps worldwide such as the Facebook-owned WhatsApp, and Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube. Messenger is the second most popular iOS app, the Android version has been downloaded over 1 billion times, 17 billion photos are sent on Messenger each month, 1 billion messages pass between people and businesses, 380 million stickers and 22 million GIFs are sent every day and the app now has a 10% global marketshare of VOIP calls.

The formal announcement of Chandrasekaran’s appointment is yet to be made.

Also Read:

India: After exiting Snapdeal, Anand Chandrasekaran to focus on portfolio firms

This article was first published on Livemint.com

Singapore Reporter/s

In Singapore, we are looking to double our reporting team by this year-end to comprehensively cover the fast-moving world of funded startups and VC, PE & M&A deals. We want reporters who can tell our readers what is really happening in these sectors and why it matters to markets, companies and consumers. The ability to write precisely and urgently is crucial for these roles. Ideal candidates must have to ability to work in a collaborative, dynamic, and fast-changing environment. We want our new hires to be digitally savvy and ready to experiment with new forms of storytelling. Most importantly, we are looking for hard-hitting reporters who work well in a team. Collaboration and collegiality are a must.

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).   

  • A reporter to track companies/startups that have raised private capital, and have the potential to become unicorns. SEA currently has over 40 companies with a valuation of over $100 million and under $1 billion.
  • A reporter who can get behind the scenes and reveal how funding rounds are put together, or why they’ve failed to materialise. She/he in this role will largely focus on long-format stories. 
  • A journalist to track special situations funds, distressed debt and private credit (from the PE angle) across Asia.
APPLY NOW

Singapore Reporter/s

In Singapore, we are looking to double our reporting team by this year-end to comprehensively cover the fast-moving world of funded startups and VC, PE & M&A deals. We want reporters who can tell our readers what is really happening in these sectors and why it matters to markets, companies and consumers. The ability to write precisely and urgently is crucial for these roles. Ideal candidates must have to ability to work in a collaborative, dynamic, and fast-changing environment. We want our new hires to be digitally savvy and ready to experiment with new forms of storytelling. Most importantly, we are looking for hard-hitting reporters who work well in a team. Collaboration and collegiality are a must.

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).   

  • A reporter to track companies/startups that have raised private capital, and have the potential to become unicorns. SEA currently has over 40 companies with a valuation of over $100 million and under $1 billion.
  • A reporter who can get behind the scenes and reveal how funding rounds are put together, or why they’ve failed to materialise. She/he in this role will largely focus on long-format stories. 
  • A journalist to track special situations funds, distressed debt and private credit (from the PE angle) across Asia.
APPLY NOW