Can the Indian -created messaging program compete with Behemoth, which is WhatsApp?
In the last couple of weeks, Arattai, created by Indian technology company Zoho, has become a viral sensation in the country. The company says it has seen seven million downloads during the “seven days of last week” without listed on the dates. According to the March Intelligence Firm Sensor Tower, Arattai downloads were less than 10,000 in August.
“Arattai”, which means Banter Tamil, 2021. He had to run gently, but few had not heard of it. The sudden increase in its popularity is associated with self -confidence in the federal government as India explores the influence of the sudden trade rates of US trade on its goods.
This is the news that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministers have repeated in the last few weeks – make it in India and spend in India.
Federal Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said so much when he announced Arattai X two weeks ago, calling people to use “Indian programs [to stay] Connected.
The company says that the government’s impetus “has undoubtedly contributed to the sudden increase in downloads of Aratai”.
“In just three days, we saw that daily registration increased from 3,000 to 350,000. As far as active users are concerned with our consumer base, we saw a 100x jump, and that number continues to grow,” said BBC, CEO of Zoho, adding that it also shows that consumers Requirements “.
The company has not provided information about its active users, but experts say they are still far from 500 million monthly active users, which Meta WhatsApp has in India.
India is the largest market for WhatsApp, and the program is almost a lifestyle in the country where people use it for everything, starting with the loan of the morning wishes to their business management.
The market intelligence company Sensor Tower says more than 95% of Arattai monthly active users were located in India in September [BBC]
ARATTAs have features similar to WhatsApp and allow users to send messages and create voice and video calls. Both applications also offer a business tool set and, like WhatsApp, Araatt, say it is designed to run smoothly on low -end phones and even at a slow internet speed.
Many users praised Arattai in social media, some say they liked its interface and design, while others felt that it was in WhatsApp. Many are also proud of the fact that it is an Indian -created program and encouraged others to download it.
Araatta is not the first Indian program dreaming of changing huge international competitors. Previously, Indian -made programs such as Koo and Moj were kept X and suitable (after the Indian government banned the Chinese program in 2020), but they never actually appeared after their original success. Even Sharechat, once a major WhatsApp competitor, softened his ambitions.
Delhi technology writer and analyst at K Roy says that Arattai will be difficult to transcend a large WhatsApp user base, especially since the platform on the Meta platform has many business and government services.
He says that the success of Aratai will depend on the ability to not only gather new users, but also to maintain them, which cannot be encouraged by the nationalist mood alone.
“The product must be good, but even then, it is unlikely to be able to replace a program that has billions of existing users in the world,” adds Mr Roy.
Started in 2020, Koo was recognized as x replacement but the program closed last year [Getty Images]
Some experts also raised concerns about the privacy of the data. Although the program offers video and voice call encryption (E2EE), it is currently not placing this feature for messages.
“The government wants to determine the traceability of messages, quoting security issues, and this can be easily done without encryption to the end,” says Shashidhar KJ, Medianama, Editor-General of Medianama, which reports technology policy in India. But this is a danger to human privacy, he adds.
Aratstai says she is actively working to make the text messaging encryption final.
“Initially, we had planned to launch this program after E2EE, which would have happened within a couple of months,” said Mani Vembu. “But the schedules were pushed, and we try to give some critical functions and infrastructure support as soon as possible.”
WhatsApp offers messages and call encryption from end to end, but according to its policy it may share meta data such as messages or call magazines, with governments, in legally justified circumstances.
Indian Internet laws require that social media platforms share consumer data with the Federal Government in certain circumstances, but it is difficult to obtain this data from international companies.
World giants, such as Meta and X, also have legal and financial support to contradict government requests or rules that they believe are unfair.
2021 WhatsApp has filed a lawsuit for India for new Government digital rules to regulate content on social media and broadcast platforms, saying that it has violated WhatsApp privacy protection. X also caused legal challenges against the Indian government’s powers to block or cancel the content.
So, experts ask if the Indian -made “Arattai” would be able to comply with the government’s requirements that may lead to a risk of consumer privacy?
Rahul Mathan, who specializes in technology law, says that as long as there is no clarity about the privacy architecture of Aratta and Zoho to share the content created by the users with the government, many people may not feel it using it.
Mr. Roy says that Zoho can feel the government, all the more that federal ministers have announced a program. In addition, he adds that Indian beginners may be easy to resist when asked to comply with laws and law enforcement requests.
Asked about what Arattai would do if they received such requests, Mani Vembu says that the company “wants its users to maintain full control of their data in accordance with the country’s information technology rules and regulations.”
“When all encryption from end to end is released, we will not even have access to the content of the user’s conversations. We will be transparent with our consumers for any legal obligations,” he said.
Experience shows that the odds are stacked against Indian programs, especially when the habits of the giants such as WhatsApp and Facebook are dominated. Whether Arattai can go ahead or disappear, as with so much, you still need to find out.
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