Anupam Mittal, the founder and CEO of People Group and Shaadi.com, and a prominent investor on Shark Tank India, is widely recognized for his strategic investments in renowned startups and unicorn companies such as Ola Cabs, BigBasket, Druva, among others. Mittal is also one of the leading voices to take on big tech firms like Google and Meta, slamming them for their “unfair” monopolistic practices in markets like India.
On April 9, Meta “arbitrarily” disabled his company’s account, prompting Mittal to call out the Mark Zuckerberg-led company on social media. Mittal also tagged Meta’s India operations’ head Sandhya Devanathan in the post.
A frustrated Mittal said, “So, shockingly our Meta account was arbitrarily disabled this morning with nobody in the know or able to help, even at our scale. This is the dysfunction of Big Tech & monopolies, something hashtag#cci must take note of. Sandhya Devanathan”
Netizens chimed in with sympathies and suggestions. Relating to Mittal’s frustration users said Meta is “only sale no support” while some urged Mittal to assemble all the Sharks and create their own Made-in-India social media platform like X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
When Mittal took on Google
On March 1, Google announced it would remove apps from 10 Indian developers, including Shaadi.com, Naukri.com, jeevansathi.com, and Bharat Matrimony, from its Play Store in India for non-compliance with its billing policies. Among the most prominent voices that spoke out against Google’s practices, was Anupam Mittal.
“Today is a dark day for India Internet,” Mittal said as he came out hitting hard against Google’s action of delisting Indian apps.
Mittal wrote on X, “Google has delisted major apps from its app store even though legal hearings are underway @CCI_India & @indSupremeCourt Their false narratives & audacity show they have little regard for India. Make no mistake – this is the new Digital East India Co and this #Lagaan must be stopped! Pls RT and #SaveOurStartups”.
Read more: Interactive Avenues: Anupam Mittal’s first investment as an angel investor