GupShup plans to launch Bot Store

Plans to focus on Start Up India to see growth in business

Cloud messaging service platform GupShup is planning to launch its Bot Store to host bots that could aggregate and deliver the best solutions for a requirement, using short message service (SMS) as its basic platform. The Bot Store, which is expected to be launched in the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona, in February, would focus on the Start Up India initiative as its thrust for growth, said a senior executive from the company.

Bot, which is the short form of robot, is a software application, which could simulate search activities, especially creating search engine indexes by accessing content from various web sites and applications.

The company, which has its established presence in the cloud messaging platform, is looking at using the bots to replace the individual apps in the app stores including that of Apple and Google. Instead of downloading individual app of several companies, for instance to find out best food outlet in the region, the bots would help the user to get a list of the best food outlets in the region along with other details in a single message.

"We have around 36 APIs (application program interfaces) in our website gupshup.me now and we are conducting hackathons to attract developers to use these APIs to develop bots. We will be launching a new website gupshup.io and our plans are to create a bot store," said Ravi Sundararajan, chief operating officer, GupShup.

He added that the bots, which could work through SMS even if there is no internet connectivity, could also be developed in one or two hours, as against the development of apps which would consume more time and investment. With the bots, one could create local bots, for instance where he or she can tie up with the restaurants in a particular area and provide the search results over message to the customer, thus starting a small venture of their own.

"We are planning to focus on India to create this and Start-Up India would drive the growth," he said. While initially the services would be for free, the company would look at monetising the initiative by charging a per centage of the usage charges, he added.

"How many apps one can download in the limited space he has? This is affecting the visibility of many apps, whereas the bots does not have this issue. I think the future is developing towards replacing all these app stores with bot stores and we are the first one doing it," he added.

The bot stores would be focusing on the smaller companies and start ups for business, while larger companies and their apps could continue to attract users. The company, in December, last year opened six APIs in a website and it has seed a good response from the developers.

The company is a market leader in Application to SMS services, which is integrating basic SMS services with e-mail and social media platforms, he said. Last year, it has seen a business of around $60 million (around Rs 360 crore) in India and has seen a compounded annual growth rate of 72 per cent in the past few years. It currently engages with around 390 start ups offering cloud messaging services.

With clients including ICICI and Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB), the company is expecting business grow in Banking, Financial services and Insurance (BFSI), social media, e-commerce, government and travel and tourism in future. It currently has 30,000 customers in the country.

With investors such as Charles River Ventures, Helion Venture Partners and Globespan Capital Partners, the company is making profit and can run the business without raising funds, Sundararajan added.