Zoho, a popular Indian tech company, recently made headlines after its messaging app Arattai suddenly lost its popularity. In October 2025, Home Minister Amit Shah tweeted that he had switched to Zoho Mail. Soon after, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw also used Zoho in a cabinet briefing. Many other ministers supported the brand, and Arattai downloads started growing fast.
Within weeks, Arattai became one of the top apps on Google Play and the App Store. But by early November, its ranking had fallen out of the top 100. So, what happened?
What is Zoho and Arattai ?
Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas founded Zoho Corporation in 1996. It started as AdventNet and later became famous for its cloud-based apps like Zoho Mail, Zoho CRM & Zoho Sheets. The company never took outside funding and is completely self-funded.
Arattai, launched in 2021, is a messaging app like WhatsApp. The word “Arattai” means “conversation” in Tamil. It allows text, voice, and video calls and stores all user data in India, unlike WhatsApp, whose data is handled by Meta in the US.
Why Did Arattai Popularity Drop?
The main issue was privacy and technology. Arattai voice and video calls were encrypted, but its text messages were not. In today’s time, end-to-end encryption is essential for protecting privacy. When users found that their chats were not fully secure, they started leaving the app.
Zoho later added encryption in November, but by then, many users had already moved back to WhatsApp or Telegram.
Sridhar Vembu’s Controversial Comment
Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu made headlines again with a post on X (formerly Twitter). He said that many Indians have a “defeatist attitude” — believing that big things “cannot be done, especially not in India.” He compared this with China, saying that the Chinese supported their own products, while Indians often do not.
Experts Explain the Fall
Tech experts say that users decide an app’s success, not ministers or companies. If users don’t get the experience they expect, they stop using the app. Bugs, missing features, and weak updates also affect app rankings.
Experts also say Indian apps often copy Western ones instead of innovating. When TikTok was banned, many Indian apps like Moj, Josh, and ShareChat came up but failed to match TikTok’s quality.
Running a social media app also costs a lot — for servers, moderation, and updates. Global companies like WhatsApp and Instagram have better resources, AI & user experience.
Why Indian Apps Can’t Stay Popular for Long
Many Indian social apps start strong but fail to maintain growth examples include Koo and Hike Messenger. Reasons include lack of innovation, low funding and trust issues.
In India, users prefer quality and privacy over slogans like “Made in India.” Experts say if Indian app developers want to compete globally, they must focus on innovation, user trust, and product quality not just emotion.