Zoho Corporation’s Founder and Chief Scientist, Sridhar Vembu, has addressed the recent dip in app store rankings for the company’s Arattai messaging app. Despite slipping out of the top 100 apps on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store in India, Vembu remains optimistic about the app’s future in India, highlighting a long-term vision over short-term fluctuations.
Launched earlier in 2021, Arattai gained traction earlier this year as the nation’s political leadership urged citizens to rely more on homegrown solutions rather than completely rely on foreign solutions. Arattai quickly gained traction with its privacy-focused features, end-to-end encryption for audio and video calls, and seamless integration with Zoho’s suite of productivity tools.
As a result, the app, which was designed for secure business and personal communication, briefly climbed into India’s top app charts, owing to the nationalist sentiments and endorsements from tech enthusiasts advocating for “Made in India” solutions.
Arattai dropped out of ‘top 100’ apps
However, in the last month, Arattai has exited the top 100 rankings – a setback that has sparked discussions on the challenges faced by domestic apps in a market saturated with established players. Factors like intense competition, user retention, and the network effect favouring WhatsApp and other players are often cited as reasons for the drop in app downloads.
In an interview with ANI, Vembu downplayed the ranking drop, “You have to go through these ups and downs. This is a particular moment; it won’t last,” Vembu stated.
“The idea that something went wrong is what is wrong. It is a normal course of events. Nothing goes straight to the moon. You have to go through these ups and downs. And the trick for companies that survive is that they have a long-term view on this… I told our employees, this is a particular moment; it won’t last… I simply don’t pay attention. And the people who pay attention and make fun of this are wasting their time.”
At the moment, Vembu and his team are working to bring end-to-end encryption to text messaging on Arattai – a feature that rival WhatsApp offers as standard. While E2E encryption is expected to bring a layer of security to the texting experience, it remains to be seen how Vembu manages to achieve a balance between national security requirements and user privacy, especially after his controversial comments on complying with the local law necessities.
