New York: TollBit, a platform helping publishers and creators monitor, manage, and monetize AI usage of their content, today announced the appointment of Harsha Subramaniam as Head of Partnerships, India. Reporting to Josh Stone, TollBit’s Vice President and Head of Partnerships, Harsha will lead the company’s efforts to build and strengthen relationships with publishers, content creators, and technology platforms across the rapidly growing Indian market.
This milestone marks the company’s next step in building a global partner ecosystem. With over 3,000 content partners and counting, TollBit is scaling quickly to meet the needs of publishers navigating the rapidly evolving AI landscape. For decades, the web’s content economy relied on a simple model: users visited publisher websites, engaged with content, and generated value through advertising, subscriptions, and other channels. That model is now under threat. AI-powered tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity are becoming the default entry point for information—sending AI agents to crawl publisher sites on users’ behalf. These Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) bots access content without permission, attribution, or compensation, driving up infrastructure costs, bypassing monetization, and leaving publishers with little visibility or control. TollBit gives publishers the ability to monitor these bots, manage them, and monetize AI access through secure, structured endpoints.
Just this year, activity across the TollBit network has surged, with a 20x increase in AI bots being blocked and redirected to the TollBit Bot Paywall. The scale and speed of change underscore the urgency for publishers worldwide to modernize their content defenses and regain control. The trend is truly global: according to a recent report in the Times of India, India has now surpassed the United States as the largest market for ChatGPT, accounting for 13.5% of ChatGPT’s global monthly active users as of April 2025.
“Harsha’s extraordinary experience and relationships make him the perfect leader to expand our presence in India,” said Josh Stone, VP and Head of Partnerships at TollBit. “He brings a deep understanding of the region’s unique opportunities and challenges, as well as the strategic vision and operational expertise needed to accelerate our growth. Harsha’s unique experience at the intersection of journalism, partnerships, and technology will be invaluable in driving forward our best-in-class ecosystem solution for managing and monetizing AI bots and agents.”
Harsha has 25 years of experience in the media industry, most recently as the Head of Global Content Strategy for Meta, where he contributed to Instagram’s efforts in building the creator economy worldwide. Prior to this, he served as Head of News Partnerships for Meta in India since 2019. He also spent a decade as an award-winning journalist and producer at Bloomberg Media and earlier worked at CNBC India as news editor, collaborating with global leaders across finance, technology, and policy.
Commenting on his appointment, Harsha Subramaniam said: “I’m thrilled to join TollBit at such a pivotal moment in the company’s journey. As AI reshapes the digital content ecosystem at lightning speed, publishers and creators need smart, sustainable ways to manage and monetize their content. TollBit is uniquely positioned to deliver this value, and I look forward to building impactful partnerships across India to drive our mission forward.”
TollBit’s expansion into India underscores its commitment to building a truly ecosystem-wide solution, partnering with global leaders in cybersecurity, infrastructure, and AI, including recent collaborations with DataDome, Human Security, and Fastly.
