The newly appointed head will lead Wattpad and work with local partners to turn Wattpad stories into film, television, print, and digital projects.
Previously, Devashish was a part of the founding team at CoHo, one of India’s co-living companies. He has also held roles in Toronto and Silicon Valley.
Devashish will beWattpad’s first Country Manager in India and will work to expand all aspects of its business in the region and grow the Toronto-based story sharing platform’s user-base in India. Currently, Wattpad has 2.6 million monthly users.
He said, “India’s media market is growing at an incredible pace, with producers and OTT services struggling to meet the demand for local content. India is a land of stories, and I can’t wait to tap into the incredible local talent on Wattpad to create hits for Indian and international audiences.”
Wattpad stated that it has seen continued growth in India, where the company’s 2.6 million monthly users have shared more than four million story uploads. Users in India can browse stories in Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Assamese, Marathi, and Oriya. Further, it added that 2018 has been a year of international expansion, with new hires, deals, and investments in Europe and Southeast Asia. The company added a number of high profile international roles this year, including Dexter Ong, who joined the company as Head of Asia for Wattpad Studios in Hong-Kong, and Lindsay Ramey, who joined the Wattpad Studios team as Director of Content Development and Production in LA.
CEO plans for a big expansion in India
Allen Lau, CEO & Co-founder, Wattpad said, “With millions of Indian users and stories already on Wattpad, we have a tremendous opportunity to help Indian writers build a global audience, and work with local studios and publishers to find new voices.” Further, he added, “Sharma understands both the product and community sides of technology, which is the perfect combination to help them expand their business in India.”
Wattpad has more than 70 million users globally. In addition to raising $51 million from Tencent and other international investors this year, Wattpad landed major production deals with iflix, Bavaria Fiction, Sony, SYFY, and others.
