WhatsApp vs Arattai-Messaging App Battle in India

1. Geopolitical Background & Increasing Demand:

• Increasing Indian sensitivity to digital sovereignty during the tension between US and India in trade.
• Fears of over-reliance on American applications (WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter).
• Recent geopolitical events that have brought about push towards indigenous alternatives.
• Government subsidies on swadeshi (indigenous) online platforms.

2. Arattai: Emerging and Characteristics:

• It was developed by Zoho Corporation (Indian company based in Chennai).
• Privacy-centered end to end encrypted messaging.
• Special characteristics: Television compatible group meetings, real-time sharing of location with the option of Till I Reach.
• Supports 16 Indian languages
• No data monetization to users.

3. Growth & Challenges:

• Blistering growth to 3.5 lakh daily downloads and 5+ million downloads.
• Problems in server capacity caused by sudden surge in demand.
• User retention issues- can momentum be maintained.
• Technical problems: Delays in OTP delivery, delay of messages.

4. Competitive Landscape:

• WhatsApp superiority: 2 billion+ users all over the globe, 50+ crore users in India.
• The rating of Arattai in app stores is 4.8/5 now.
• Requirement to constantly innovate in order to keep up with WhatsApp in terms of features.

5. Future Prospects:

• Possibility of emerging as the major local messaging system in India.
• Has to conquer technical scalability issue.
• Needs long term investment by the company and the users.
• Representative of the Indian dream of digital self-sufficiency.