Homegrown Arattai tops India app charts, outshines ChatGPT, Gemini

In a shakeup of India’s app landscape, Zoho-founded messaging app Arattai has soared to the number one spot in downloads, surpassing global heavyweights Google Gemini and ChatGPT across both Apple App Store and Google Play Store, according to Sensor Tower data.

 

The rise comes on the heels of a government-endorsed swadeshi push. On September 22, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who announced his plans to switch to the “swadeshi” Zoho suite of software, urged citizens to adopt homegrown digital products, aligning with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for adoption of indigenous products and services. Corporate leaders, including Anand Mahindra, also pitched for Arattai’s adoption, lending the platform further visibility. Arattai is a Tamil word, meaning  chit-chat.

 

The swadeshi mome¬n¬tum has also given a push to Perplexity AI, a generative AI-powered answer engine co-founded by IIT Madras alumnus Aravind Srinivas but headquartered in the US. Perplexity now ranks as the second most downloaded app, ahead of rivals ChatGPT and Gemini.  

 

Arattai’s meteoric climb

 

On Google Play Store, Arattai was ranked 117th on September 27. By October 1, it jumped to third place, and the following day it hit number one, maintaining that position through October 7.

 

On Apple's App Store, Arattai moved from 82nd on September 25 to second by September 27, trailing only Google Gemini, before seizing the top spot on September 29, which it retains.

 

Perplexity’s rise mirrors Arattai’s momentum. On Google Play, it fluctuated between third and fourth place from September 22, but climbed to second on October 4, directly behind Arattai, and continues to hold that position.

 

According to Zoho, Arattai has amassed 7.5 million downloads as of October 3. Founder Sridhar Vembu, however, has cautioned against the rush to go public, stating that a product like Arattai would not have been built by a publicly listed company constrained by quarterly financial pressures. He described it as a “hopelessly foolish project,” noting that even employees initially expressed scepticism.

 

Despite its success, Arattai is still a long way from challenging Meta’s WhatsApp, which boasts 537 million users in India. But Arattai has some advantages including domestic data storage, no advertisements, no selling of user information, and a simple, clean interface. Experts note, however, that while audio and video calls are end-to-end encrypted, messaging encryption is not yet fully implemented.