OpenAI has announced that it will begin showing ads on ChatGPT’s Free and Go tiers in India, starting with 50 brands through partnerships with WPP and Omnicom, alongside an ad manager launching next month for marketers meeting a daily minimum budget requirement. Dave Dugan, OpenAI’s head of global ads solutions, said the feature would allow businesses to reach users at relevant, high-context decision-making moments. The expansion follows OpenAI’s earlier ad rollouts in the US and Europe and builds on the company’s aggressive push into India, where it reported exceeding 100 million weekly active users in February, having previously launched a discounted ChatGPT Go tier and offered a year of free access to build its user base there.
Along with this, OpenAI announced that Sandhya Devanathan, Meta’s vice president for India and Southeast Asia, is departing after more than a decade at the company to join OpenAI, where she will be based in Singapore and oversee consumer growth, enterprise adoption, and regulatory engagement across Southeast Asia and Australia, reporting to Asia-Pacific managing director Kiran Mani. Her hire follows OpenAI’s recent recruitment of former Uber India head Prabhjeet Singh, as the company continues expanding its regional footprint with new offices across the Asia-Pacific. Following her exit, Meta’s India managing director Arun Srinivas will report directly to the company’s Asia-Pacific vice president, Benjamin Joe. Devanathan’s departure comes as Meta faces mounting scrutiny in India, including recent controversies involving a restricted post from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and government inquiries over child exploitation content found in Instagram advertisements.
