WhatsApp’s Neeraj Arora Quits the Facebook-Owned App

The social messaging app has seen mass departures this year, including its co-founders.

The last of the company’s main men has left for newer pastures.

(Photo: The Qunt)

In yet another high-profile exit at WhatsApp, its Indian-origin Chief Business Officer Neeraj Arora has quit, saying he needs "time off to recharge and spend time with family".

Arora has been with WhatsApp since 2011 – well before the mobile messaging service's $19 billion acquisition by Facebook. An alumnus of the Indian School of Business (ISB), Arora played a key role in closing the acquisition of WhatsApp. He worked with Google before joining WhatsApp.

"It is hard to believe that it has been seven years since Jan (Koum) and Brian (Acton) got me onboard at WhatsApp, and it has been one hell of a ride," Arora said in a post on Tuesday.

Arora is the latest to move out, and at the same time, WhatsApp got its first head for its India business earlier this month.

"I am deeply indebted to Jan and Brian, who entrusted me to be their business companion for so many years," he added.

In a jolt to Facebook in May, WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Koum decided to move on amid reports that he had a difference of opinion with parent company Facebook over data privacy, encryption and other issues.

Arora was rumoured to be the front runner to replace Koum as CEO. Another WhatsApp co-founder Acton made his highly-publicised exit from Facebook in 2017.

Koum may have been embroiled in a rift with Facebook management over the parent company’s voracious appetite for personal information and WhatsApp’s dedication to user privacy, according to a Washington Post report. WhatsApp uses encryption technology that makes messages indecipherable to everyone but the sender and recipient.

"It's time to move on, but I cannot be more proud of how WhatsApp continues to touch people in so many different ways every day," Arora said.

"I am confident that WhatsApp will continue to be the simple, secure and trusted communication product for years to come," he added.

It is interesting to Arora point out the part about WhatsApp being a “secure and trusted communication product” which has been questioned recently with Facebook slowly taking over the product. The social networking giant is also looking to push ads on the messaging app, introduced a business version of of the app as well.