Zoho-owned chatting and calling application Arattai recently experienced a significant increase in user traffic. This surge aligns with the growing preference for homegrown applications, supported by the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative.

Zoho's founder, Sridhar Vembu, reported that the app's traffic grew by 100 times within just three days. New sign-ups dramatically increased from 3,000 to 350,000 per day during this period.

"We are adding infrastructure on an emergency basis for another potential 100x peak surge. That is how exponentials work," Vembu shared in a social media post. This statement underscored the rapid pace of the app's adoption.

This sudden and substantial spike in usage has prompted Zoho to focus on strengthening Arattai's backend systems. The company is actively working to address any technical challenges that have emerged.

"As we add a lot more infrastructure, we are also fine-tuning and updating the code to fix issues as they arise. We have all-hands-on-deck working flat out," Vembu stated.

Vembu also disclosed that Zoho had initially planned a major release for Arattai by November. This release was intended to introduce new features, expand capacity, and include a marketing campaign. However, the app's exponential growth occurred much sooner than anticipated.

The company has a lot more planned for Arattai, the Zoho CEO added.


This development for Arattai comes amidst conversations about a potential stock market listing for Zoho in India. Vembu addressed this speculation, suggesting that projects like Arattai might not have been feasible if Zoho were a publicly listed company.

"Arattai would very likely not have been built by a public company that faces quarter-to-quarter financial pressure. It was a 'hopelessly foolish' project, and even our employees had expressed scepticism that Arattai would ever gain any traction," he explained.

Vembu further highlighted Zoho's commitment to long-term research and development. He emphasised that this focus takes precedence over pursuing short-term profits.

Zoho currently has several ambitious projects underway, including work on compilers, databases, and operating systems. The company is also involved in security, hardware, chip design, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

Additionally, Zoho has invested in various R&D-intensive firms. These investments are made even if they do not promise immediate financial returns.

"Zoho is a kind of an industrial research lab that also makes money to fund itself. We essentially ignore short-term profits, as long as we don't lose money. And we have a culture of founders and senior executives living frugally, like how good scientists and engineers in ISRO would live. To us that is the essence of Bharat," Vembu stated.

He drew a comparison between Zoho's operational approach and Japan's development model during its period of significant economic growth.

"Imagine saying all that to Wall Street or Dalal Street!" he remarked. This comment underscored why Zoho is not in a hurry to pursue a public listing.


Last week, Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union minister for information technology, endorsed Zoho's platform for documents and spreadsheets. He encouraged others to adopt these indigenous tools.

"I am moving to Zoho our own Swadeshi platform for documents, spreadsheets & presentations. I urge all to join PM Shri @narendramodi Ji's call for Swadeshi by adopting indigenous products and services," the Minister said in his post on X.