YouTube India has a new Country Managing Director, Gunjan Soni, who took office on April 28, 2025. With over two decades of experience spanning business, technology, marketing, and e-commerce, Soni is expected to spearhead the platform's growth and innovation efforts in India.
Soni succeeds Ishan Chatterjee, who departed in 2024 to become the chief revenue officer at JioCinema. Before joining YouTube, Soni was the Group CEO at ZALORA in Singapore for six years. Her extensive background also includes positions such as Executive Vice President at Star India, Chief Marketing Officer at Myntra, and Partner at McKinsey & Company, where she focused on consumer and marketing practices. Soni holds a Computer Science degree from Barkatullah University and an MBA in Finance from XLRI Jamshedpur. She also serves on the board of CBRE Group, a Fortune 500 company.
Gautam Anand, Vice President of YouTube APAC, expressed his enthusiasm for Soni's appointment, noting her dynamic leadership in business, tech, and marketing. He emphasized that her arrival underscores YouTube's commitment to empowering creators, connecting users, and contributing to India's digital advancement. Soni will be based in Mumbai and is expected to lead YouTube's strategic initiatives in one of its largest global markets.
Soni has expressed her excitement about joining YouTube India, highlighting the platform's role in empowering creators and connecting communities across the country. She is particularly interested in building upon this foundation by fostering innovation and enhancing the platform's ability to help creators unlock new storytelling opportunities and reach global audiences. In a LinkedIn post, Soni shared her vision for expanding opportunities in video commerce and Shorts and deepening YouTube's engagement across various user groups. She also mentioned exploring innovative formats and video commerce approaches that feel intuitive and natural.
In recent news, YouTube is scaling its shopping experience in India, which reflects the rapid growth of the country's creator economy. Shopping-related watch time on YouTube in India has grown over 250% year on year, with more than 200 million logged-in users conducting shopping-related searches. The platform has expanded its YouTube Shopping affiliate program with new merchant partners and introduced additional tools to support more efficient collaborations between creators and brands. New retail partners, such as Nykaa and Purplle, have joined existing collaborators like Flipkart and Myntra.
According to YouTube, over 200 million logged-in users in India have conducted shopping-related searches on the platform, highlighting the country's increasing interest in content-driven commerce. This expansion includes new creator tools, brand partnership initiatives, and enhanced monetization options to help creators build sustainable businesses and enable advertisers to drive high-intent traffic.
Gunjan Soni stated that India's vibrant creator economy is defining the next era of video commerce on YouTube. She added that YouTube is scaling content-driven shopping into a complete monetization ecosystem by empowering creators, offering engaging formats to viewers, and deepening partnerships with top merchants. YouTube's collaboration with Nykaa will also launch a dedicated program to discover and accelerate the next generation of India's beauty and lifestyle creators.
