- Zoho's Sridhar Vembu, whose Arattai app climbed to top spot on the App Store, said it was a "Swadeshi moment"
- End-to-end encryption for Arattai will be rolled out soon, with a security white paper in 10 days, he said
- Vembu does not intend to monetise the app ever, he said
Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu, whose Made-in-India Arattai app climbed to the top spot in the Social Networking category on the App Store, said it was a "Swadeshi moment" in their technology journey. Speaking to NDTV, Vembu asserted that while he and his team had a good start, they still have a long way to go.
"It's really a Swadeshi moment in our technology journey. We are realising it is not only the government, our citizens, it's everybody - even from the private sector, it is a Swadeshi moment. We need to control our own destiny as a nation. I think this is a broad consensus. That's why we got all the abundant love. I'm very happy to see the recognition coming at this point, but the moment has been building up for a while. As far as criticism, there will always be some critical opinion. But I don't ever let that worry me," Vembu said.
According to Vembu, the country needs homegrown technology for day-to-day living, manufacturing.
"We still have a long, long way to go. We've started good, so we are grateful for that. We need this type of technology, not just Arratai, not messaging, but all of the core technology we have come to depend on in day-to-day living, manufacturing. The reason is that we depend on some other nations for all this; they do get weaponised in an adverse scenario, against us. And the unfortunate reality of today is complex geopolitics. It is important that we master these technologies and create a strong domestic ecosystem," he said.
The Zoho co-founder added, "We cannot do everything, but we need to be able to trade on equal terms, on which we need to master the complex technologies."
Differentiating Arratai from other apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, Vembu said, "From a WhatsApp perspective, we are not an advertising company. We're a software company, we specialise in business-to-business software where businesses particularly care for trade secrets, their important inside information, from any kind of exposure. That's our real advantage in our business. We're bringing in that same philosophy to Arattai," he said.
"The Arattai app is so much more. Once the foundation of trust is established, it can then be a foundation for commerce, payments, and a lot of ecosystems can be built on it. But to build this with confidence, we need a foundation of trust. Is my data safe, how is it used, who has access to it - all these questions have to be answered," Vembu added.
The Arattai app founder further asserted that they do not intend to monetise the app ever, using advertisements or third-party access to data.
"Within 10 days, we're coming up with a full security white paper on this, and we also have end-to-end encryption rolled out in a week or two. We're testing it right now," he said.
Presently, the app does not have verifiable encryption.
"The app went viral before we rolled it out. It was always due for a mid to late November launch. We were preparing for it, and then, we were testing it. And then suddenly it went viral. Sometimes the unexpected happens. We are thankful that it happened. It's not like we are complaining about it. We had to scramble to put in place the infrastructure. We were actually preparing a big data center in Mumbai. All of the servers are getting installed, all of it for a mid to late November launch. And then, when the infrastructure was not quite ready, all this happened. So we had to scramble. We managed it. Now the features are getting rolled out," he said.
Zoho launched Arattai in January 2021, after WhatsApp announced changes to its privacy policy. The app is now being promoted as India's own messaging solution. Arattai means "casual chat" in Tamil. Much like WhatsApp, Arattai allows users to text and send voice messages, make video calls, click photos and videos, share documents, stories, groups, and channels, multi-device support across smartphones, tablets, and desktops, and import conversations from other chat platforms.
Many Union Ministers, including Amit Shah and Dharmendra Pradhan, have switched to Arattai and urged users to do the same.
Responding to this, Vembu said he is "truly grateful".
However, according to Vembu, 90 per cent of their revenue is coming from global markets, and two to three per cent is coming from the Indian government.
"We've built a business that is global in scale and scope," he said.
