With explosive growth and government backing, Zoho’s Arattai has captured attention. But can it truly rival the global dominance of WhatsApp?
Zoho’s homegrown messaging app, Arattai, is making headlines after a dramatic spike in new users. The app’s daily sign-ups shot up from around 3,000 to 350,000 in just three days — a hundredfold increase. This unexpected surge has pushed Zoho’s teams into overdrive as they scramble to scale infrastructure and manage performance issues.
Zoho’s co-founder and Chief Scientist, Sridhar Vembu, on X, “We are adding infrastructure on an emergency basis for another potential 100x peak surge.”
Government Backing and a Swadeshi Push For Zoho Arattai
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has been vocal in his support of Arattai, urging citizens to adopt indigenous digital platforms. Echoing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for Swadeshi, Pradhan described the app as “secure, user-friendly, and completely free.”
The app’s name, “Arattai,” means “casual conversation” in Tamil. It’s available on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store, and it offers familiar features: document and image sharing, audio and video calls, group chats with up to 1,000 participants, and dedicated channels.
The Challenges Ahead
Despite its promise, Arattai faces tough questions about security. Calls are end-to-end encrypted, but text messages are not fully protected — a gap that could deter privacy-focused users. In a market where WhatsApp has become almost synonymous with instant messaging, gaining trust will be as important as gaining numbers.
Vembu acknowledges the road ahead is steep. He said,
“As we add a lot more infrastructure, we are also fine-tuning and updating the code to fix issues as they arise. We have all-hands-on-deck working flat out…We have a lot more planned for Arattai, please give us some time. Thank you for your patience and support! Jai Hind.”
Zoho’s Bigger Vision
Arattai’s rise is part of Zoho’s broader ambition to build world-class technology from Indian soil. Vembu points out that Zoho has invested in research-heavy areas like compilers, databases, operating systems, chip design, robotics, and AI. Vembu said.
“Zoho is a kind of an industrial research lab that also makes money to fund itself. We essentially ignore short-term profits, as long as we don't lose money. And we have a culture of founders and senior executives living frugally, like how good scientists and engineers in ISRO would live. To us that is the essence of Bharat,”
The early momentum suggests appetite for a homegrown alternative is real, especially with nationalist sentiment and government endorsements fueling interest. But WhatsApp’s entrenched user base, global reach, and advanced security features make it a formidable competitor. For now, Arattai’s explosive growth has given Zoho a golden opportunity. Whether it can sustain that momentum and evolve into a long-term challenger remains the question.
