October 3, 2025

Hold onto your phones! Arattai, the Chennai-born messaging app from Zoho, has suddenly become the talk of the town with an eye-popping 100 times surge in users within just a few days. Though launched back in 2021, the Tamil-named app meaning “chat” only went viral recently after senior government ministers like Ashwini Vaishnaw, Piyush Goyal, and Dharmendra Pradhan endorsed it. This push ties perfectly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of using India-made products, creating a big buzz in India’s startup and venture capital worlds. But here’s the spicy question – will Arattai really beat WhatsApp, which is deeply rooted in millions of Indians’ lives? Experts are a bit cautious. Siddarth Pai, founding partner at 3one4 Capital, said, “Why (domestic) software products don't pick up is because there’s a fascination for foreign consumer tech.” He also explained, “More than features, what’s going to be critical for Arattai is getting the network effect correct. For any messaging app, that depends on the number of people signing up as well as the engagement on the platform.” 3one4 Capital once backed the Indian Twitter rival Koo, which reached 10 million monthly users before shutting down due to funding troubles. Anand Lunia of India Quotient said, “Mass adoption is mandatory for a messaging app, and will happen only in case of a disruption.” Until then, he believes Arattai should build useful tools, so when disruption comes, growth could explode by “10, 20, 100X.” The magic dust for Arattai’s success might lie beyond just chatting. Pai pointed out the app could soar by adding payments and shopping through UPI and ONDC, keeping users glued with fresh services. “It’s not a question of the superiority of technology, it's just a question of adoption,” he stressed. However, the sudden rise showed cracks. Some users faced problems like download glitches, OTP delays, and app crashes. Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu assured everyone, saying, “As we add more infrastructure, we are also fine-tuning and updating the code to fix issues as they arise. We have all hands on deck working flat out.” Brijesh Damodaran of Auxano Capital added an interesting view: “The real opportunity isn’t in replicating WhatsApp for consumers. It’s in reframing Arattai as a secure communication layer embedded in Zoho’s ecosystem. That’s not just messaging, it’s workflow integration, where stickiness comes from productivity, not virality.” India has seen many local apps try to challenge giants before, like Koo or PUBG clones Fearless and United Guards, but many failed due to low users and tech problems. Anand Ramanathan from Deloitte India said, “Some key factors here are increasing consumer adoption and models which provide commercial reasons for using these apps.” He noted that unlike earlier attempts, Arattai now competes in a bigger market, which could help it grab some users. So, the big Bollywood-style question remains: Will Arattai’s spicy chat app be the next big hit in India, or will WhatsApp’s millions pull the curtain down? Only time will tell if Arattai’s flavor stays fresh and wins hearts!

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Tags: Arattai, Zoho, Messaging app, India, Startups, Digital products,