Arattai Me?

“WhatsApp me” has become a universal phrase for texting. But will “Arattai me” ever catch on? Zoho’s homegrown messaging app may sound like a casual chat in Tamil, but its rise has been anything but casual.

“Muyalum vellum, aameyum vellum, muyalaamey endrum velladhu” — the rabbit will win, the turtle will win, but a lack of effort will never win. That’s the spirit of Zoho, in Kumar Vembu’s words.

Many now call Arattai  India's "WhatsApp killer." However, history shows that such claims often emerge early and fade quickly. 

Every few years, an Indian app rides the wave of  “Made in India” hype. Moj, Koo, Hike, and JioMeet, all saw explosive growth, only to lose users later. While downloads are easy, retention is the real battle. 

A WhatsApp Killer?

In just three days, Arattai soared from obscurity to the top of India’s social networking charts, briefly overtaking WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal. Daily signups jumped from 3,000 to over 3.5 lakhs. 

Cabinet ministers joined the chorus. Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan called it “secure, safe, and Made in India.” Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said, “Nothing beats the feeling of using a Swadeshi product.” 

Even IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw revealed he was moving his documents to Zoho. Anand Mahindra said he downloaded Arattai with “pride”.

For a moment, it seemed India had found its own WhatsApp. But anyone who knows India’s consumer internet knows this is only the beginning of a long, uphill climb. Matching WhatsApp’s 500 million users in India is close to impossible.        

At AIM, we use Zoho’s services too. Yet, for emails, calendar and AI tools, Google still rules as it offers seamless global connectivity. The same logic applies to WhatsApp. Even a 60-year-old in India would hesitate to switch to another app, even if it's homegrown, if all their connections are not there. Sovereignty alone can’t bridge that gap.

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Amidst this push for an Indian WhatsApp, Mira Murtai, the former CTO of OpenAI has finally launched the first product from her new startup, Thinking Machines. Tinker, the first product from the $2 billion AI startup, is a Python-native API that puts granular control into the hands of AI researchers — while abstracting the pain of distributed compute. 

Lessons from the Past

Hike had offline SMS, hidden chats, stickers and free texting to non-users. It peaked at $1.4 billion before pivoting to gaming and eventually shutting down. 

Koo, once hailed as India’s Twitter alternative, never converted buzz into sustainable adoption. Both failed because consumer networks thrive on global reach, not replication. Without a distinct differentiator, clones rarely survive.  

Why Zoho Thinks it’s Different

Sridhar Vembu, Zoho’s founder, insists that Arattai is not a WhatsApp clone, but rather a communication and productivity platform. 

Beyond chat, Arattai offers built-in features like Zoom meetings, a “Pocket” to save messages and files, a Mentions tab similar to Slack, and a “till I reach” location-sharing feature. There are no ads, no AI gimmicks, and a promise that all data stays in India.

“Indian customer data is hosted in India—Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, soon Odisha,” Vembu said. “We are proudly Made in India, Made for the World.”         

Still the question remains as to whether it can replace WhatsApp, or even Google or Microsoft in a market driven by network effects? 

Zoho’s Real Moat

Mani Vembu, Zoho’s CEO, spoke with AIM Network, about Arattai’s sudden rise and the technical challenge of supporting millions of users. He explained that Arattai’s backbone is not new. “The Arattai backend started in 2005-06,” he said. “It’s the platform that powers Zoho’s entire ecosystem, and the same messaging system runs in Zoho Cliq.” 

This long-tested infrastructure helped Zoho scale rapidly by adding more servers, rather than rebuilding its technology. “We were preparing for an infrastructure update in November,” Mani said. “The spike forced us to accelerate those plans.”

Despite this surge, Mani emphasised caution. “We are happy with the traction, but we are also cautious about going aggressive on new features. In SaaS, usage matters more than revenue. We track how many users return, who uses and who finds value.”

This measured approach is typical of Zoho’s long-term philosophy. 

With 28 years of experience and 130 million global users, Zoho has built products from email and cloud storage to AI-powered tools in-house. Arattai fits as the messaging layer of a sovereign tech stack. 

AIM Network Deep Dive >>

Check out the entire conversation with Mani on our YouTube channel, where he delves into the journey of Zoho and shares that it’s all about continuous learning, finding new markets, and delivering on that learning.

Privacy and Sovereignty

A key feature for any messaging app is privacy. Mani confirmed that Arattai already offers end-to-end encryption for calls, and optional E2E encryption for private chats, which will soon become default. 

The decision to host all infrastructure in India, independent of AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud, is central to Zoho’s vision of digital sovereignty. The company owns every layer of its tech stack, from messaging and video processing to databases and multi-tenant architecture. Even OTP verification and AI services run on in-house systems. 

Arattai is also experimenting with novel use cases. The Android TV app, for instance, allows users to project meetings or celebrations onto the big screen, bringing families and communities closer together. Mani hinted at more features inspired by Zoho Cliq.

Still, Arattai may be just one piece of Zoho’s broader plan — to make its entire suite the default for Indian businesses and users.

Arattai reflects a broader philosophy: solve local problems at scale. Zoho, which currently has its biggest market in the US, has invested heavily in India-specific products, like GST-compliant POS systems, and regional sales and support teams. 

But the real battle isn’t about one chat app. It’s about whether India can build deep, sovereign technology that’s competitive worldwide.

Perhaps one day, “Arattai me” will become as natural as “WhatsApp me.” But as history shows — in tech, habit is the hardest moat to break.