The Arattai app by Zoho, initially launched as a homegrown competitor to WhatsApp in India, has significantly lost popularity.
The Indian messaging platform, which was introduced in the middle of the data privacy controversy in WhatsApp in 2021, dropped out of the top 100 list on the Play Store rankings in India.
Although it had a promising start with being a secure and locally created chat app, in recent months the level of user engagement has reduced drastically in Arattai.
The Rise and Fall of Arattai
Arattai (meaning “chat” in Tamil) was developed by Zoho, one of the most successful software companies in India, and the instant attention attracted itself.
By that time, the number of Indian users considering substitutes to foreign messaging services that received a backlash on privacy was in the millions.
Arattai was confident in marking total security of code, end to end encryption, along with the fact that it was entirely created in India, provided it with added advantage.
Originally, the app has received more than a million downloads and appraisals for its ease of use and the lack of design.
Its similarity to the layout in WhatsApp was enjoyed by many users, which included additional features specific to privacy.
It was also closely incorporated into the Zoho ecosystem, which is convenient to use among professionals and small businesses that already use Zoho products.
Nevertheless, the hype wore out, and the growth of the app started decreasing. It was difficult to compete with such existing international players as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal.
These platforms kept innovating at a very fast pace, including some new features such as channels, community chats, and AI tools, and updates of Arattai were relatively minimal.
Analysts claim that although Arattai was at the right time to launch the product, it could not maintain users in the long run. The reason was that it did not have unique features to set it apart from the competition.
Why Arattai Lost Its Edge
Arattai has lost popularity recently due to a number of reasons:
- Lack of Marketing and Publicity: Zoho did not pursue marketing Arattai after the initial buzz about the product. On the contrary, competing platforms such as Telegram and Signal were still capable of communicating with users by providing updates, campaigns, and covering news on the global scale.
- No Special Features: It happened that Arattai provided virtually the same functionality to users as WhatsApp with a significantly smaller size of its adoption. Group video calls or stickers or AI-based tools were either unavailable or not as developed.
- Reliance on Zoho Ecosystem: But as the Zoho integration was useful to business people, the general population did not see a lot of value added. The fact that Zoho was associated with Arattai was not even known by many of its users.
- Viable Competition via Indian Platforms: Both domestic competitors such as Hike (freshly rebranded as a social gaming app) and newer regional competitors also drew some of the Indian traffic and left the user base of Arattai scattered.
- Shifting User Patterns: Messaging apps have become fully fledged social ecosystems. Individuals are now more favorable to applications that provide groups, settlements, brief videos, and AI services, all of which Arattai was behind.
Arattai has currently dropped out of the top 100 communication apps list in India, based on the app analytics, showing a sharp fall in downloads and actively used applications.
Zoho has not closed Arattai officially yet, having the app still downloadable. The company has, however, moved its core focus to business and enterprise software, particularly cloud solutions and AI squids under Zoho One.
Observing analysts think that Arattai may yet resurrect itself should Zoho choose to rebrand or remake it into a larger group of communication offerings.
As more people in India are taking up the digital independence movement and the government is encouraging the use of indigenous technology, the app could be brought back with improved marketing, additional features, and state alliances that would renew the interest.
According to some analysts, Zoho could transform Arattai into a business communication application, like Slack or Microsoft Teams, rather than an actual consumer messaging application.
That step would enable Zoho to leverage its significant presence in the business sector and reuse Arattai as a teamwork tool and a chat app in the workplace.
At least, the story of Arattai provides a reminder of the difficulties that the Indian messaging app market presents so far.
The brand name alone, such as Zoho, could not run away with the superiority of the world giants.
Overall, the decline of the Arattai app in the leading positions in India can be viewed as a reminder that in the world of apps, where everyone is active, innovative, and engaging the users, it is crucial to rely on innovation, promote it actively, and remain connected with the users.
Although Zoho continues to be an organization with solid technology credentials, the next phase of its future lies in the ability to redefine itself and seek a new market in the dynamic digital world of India.
