Zoho's Arattai App Experiences 100x Traffic Surge as India Embraces Indigenous Digital Solutions

The remarkable growth has prompted Zoho to urgently strengthen Arattai's backend infrastructure.

New Delhi:

Arattai, an Indian-developed messaging application by Zoho, has experienced an extraordinary surge in user adoption recently, riding the wave of enthusiasm for homegrown technologies under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative.

Sridhar Vembu, founder of Zoho, revealed that the application has seen a staggering 100-fold increase in traffic over just three days. Daily new sign-ups have skyrocketed from 3,000 to approximately 350,000.

"We're implementing emergency infrastructure expansions to accommodate another potential 100x surge in usage. That's the nature of exponential growth," Vembu explained in his social media communication, highlighting the rapid adoption rate.

This unexpected growth spike has necessitated Zoho's immediate attention to reinforce Arattai's backend systems and resolve emerging technical issues.

"While expanding our infrastructure significantly, we're simultaneously optimizing code to address issues as they emerge. Our entire team is working around the clock," Vembu stated.

He also disclosed that Zoho had originally scheduled a major Arattai update for November, which was intended to introduce enhanced features, expanded capacity, and a marketing campaign. However, the exponential user growth arrived sooner than anticipated.

"We have numerous enhancements planned for Arattai, but request your patience. Thank you for your continued support! Jai Hind," he added.

This development emerges amid inquiries about Zoho potentially listing on the Indian stock market. Addressing such speculation, Vembu explained that initiatives like Arattai likely wouldn't have materialized if Zoho operated as a publicly traded company.

"A public company facing quarterly financial pressures would very likely not have developed Arattai. It was considered an 'impractically ambitious' project, with even our staff expressing doubts about Arattai ever gaining significant adoption," he elaborated.

Vembu emphasized Zoho's dedication to sustained research and development rather than immediate profitability.

He mentioned that Zoho has numerous ambitious projects under development, spanning compilers, databases, operating systems, security solutions, hardware development, chip design, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

The company has additionally invested in several R&D-intensive ventures that may not yield short-term returns.

"Zoho functions essentially as an industrial research laboratory that generates revenue to fund itself. We generally prioritize long-term innovation over immediate profits, provided we remain financially stable. Our founders and senior executives maintain modest lifestyles, similar to dedicated scientists and engineers at ISRO. For us, this embodies the essence of Bharat," Vembu explained.

He likened this approach to Japan's development strategy during its growth period.

"Imagine presenting such a philosophy to Wall Street or Dalal Street!" he remarked, illustrating why Zoho isn't pursuing a public listing.

Previously, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting, Electronics & Information Technology, endorsed Zoho's platform for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, encouraging others to follow suit.

"I am transitioning to Zoho -- our own Swadeshi platform for documents, spreadsheets & presentations. I encourage everyone to support PM Shri @narendramodi Ji's call for Swadeshi by adopting indigenous products and services," the Minister stated in his post on X.