The challenger

THE CHENNAI TECHIE & TEAM MUST WORK OVERTIME TO CLOSE A FEW GAPS IN ARATTAI SO IT CAN MOUNT A SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGE TO WHATSAPP

- NARAYANAN V

JERI JOHN DEVEGEORGE keeps a quiet corner on the internet — fewerthan 500 followers on X,a LinkedIn profile without a post for over a year, and a title that still reflects his role as Senior Product Manager of Zoho Cliq. Yet,as Global Product Head of Arattai, he now finds himself under the spotlight as Zoho shepherds India’s most ambitious bid to take on WhatsApp.

The Chennai headquartered tech firm itself wasn't probably ready for all the attention being showered on its close-to-five-year-old instant messaging app Arattai. From just 300 downloads a day to over a million post its endorsement by Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Arattai’s meteoric rise has turned a rather underplayed Zoho experiment into a talking point in the country’s tech scene. But for John, the app’s global product head, the real challenge begins now-- that of converting a swadeshi-fuelled spike into lasting user loyalty -- a point where many homegrown challengers such as Hike and Koo have called it quits.

A user summed up Arattai's dilemma on X, “I downloaded the app and there’s no one from my contacts on Arattai to message.”

“The network effects of WhatsApp and Telegram are global. Many people have friends and contacts across the world and find value in that connectivity,” says Nikhil Pahwa, founder of MediaNama.