Snapchat parent elevates Ajit Mohan as chief business officer

Ajit Mohan

Snapchat parent Snap on February 4 named Ajit Mohan as its chief business officer to oversee the company's expanding advertising business.

In this role, Mohan will be responsible for growing the social media company's advertising business across all regions and leading Snap's revenue product and business operations organisations to bring "greater alignment" across teams responsible for serving the firm's advertising partners, Snap said in an investor letter.

Mohan joined Snap in November 2022 as the president for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, overseeing the company's business in India, Australia and New Zealand, China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Korea markets. This hire was part of Snap's regional leadership realignment, in which it created a new president role for the Americas, EMEA, and APAC regions.

This hire came as Snap sought to ramp up its operations in the APAC region, a key potential growth market since it accounts for more than 75 percent of over 13-year-old smartphone users who do not use Snapchat yet. The app's primary audience are smartphone users in the age group of 13-34.

In the letter, Snap said Mohan rapidly grew Snap's business and presence across the region. India has been a particular user growth area for the company with over 200 million monthly active users.

Before joining Snap, Mohan served as the vice president and India managing director for Facebook parent Meta for nearly four years. Mohan was the first India chief to directly report to Meta’s headquarters in Menlo Park, unlike previous leaders who reported to Meta’s Asia pacific office.

Prior to that, Mohan served as the chief executive officer of Star India (now Disney Star)'s video streaming service Hotstar (now Disney+ Hotstar) for four years. He was involved in launching the streaming service and making it the leading player in the country’s burgeoning video streaming market.

Mohan has also served various roles at Star India's television business including senior vice president and executive vice president. Before Star India, he’s had stints at consultancy firms McKinsey and Arthur D Little.

Snap's advertising rebound

Mohan's elevation comes as Snap witnesses a rebound in its advertising revenues following an overhaul of its ads business which saw it shift focus from brand advertising to direct-response ads.

In 2024, Snap saw its revenue grow 16 percent year-over-year (YoY) to $5.36 billion, driven primarily by direct-response ad revenue, which also grew 16 percent year-over-year for the full year. Net loss also reduced by nearly half to $698 million in 2024, from $1.32 billion loss in 2023.

In Q4, Snap's total revenue was $1.56 billion, up 14 percent YoY. Advertising revenue was $1.41 billion, up 10 percent YoY, driven primarily by growth from direct-response advertising revenue, which increased 14 percent year-over-year. Brand-oriented advertising revenue was down 1 percent YoY due to continued weakness concentrated among a relatively small group of large clients focused largely in North America, the company said.

The company's net income was $9 million for the quarter, as compared to a net loss of $248 million in the same quarter last year.

"We drove robust growth from our SMB (small- and medium-size businesses) client segment globally as we continue to build toward a more diversified and performance based advertising business" Snap said in the investor letter.

"The combination of more performant direct-response products, improved go-to-market operations optimized for SMB customers, and a simplified ad buying experience made SMBs the largest contributor to ad revenue growth in 2024" it said.

SMBs contributed to total active advertisers more than doubling YoY in the fourth quarter, Snap said.

Snapchat added 39 million daily active users (DAU) during the quarter to take its total DAU base to 453 million, a 9 percent increase YoY.