Zoho’s homegrown messaging app Arattai has seen an unprecedented spike in traffic amid the push for indigenous platforms under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative.
According to Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu, the app registered a 100x jump in traffic within three days, with daily sign-ups soaring from 3,000 to 350,000.
"We are adding infrastructure on an emergency basis for another potential 100x peak surge. That is how exponentials work," Vembu said in a social media post.
The rapid surge has forced Zoho to strengthen Arattai’s backend and fix technical issues on priority. "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 added.
Zoho had initially scheduled a major Arattai release for November, with new features, larger capacity, and marketing efforts. But the unexpected growth has arrived earlier than planned. "We have a lot more planned for Arattai, please give us some time. Thank you for your patience and support! Jai Hind," Vembu said.
The surge has also revived speculation over a possible Zoho listing in India. Responding to this, Vembu clarified that projects like Arattai may not have been possible if Zoho operated as a listed public company.
He explained that Arattai would very likely not have been built by a public company facing quarter-to-quarter financial pressure. He admitted it had been a “hopelessly foolish” project, noting that even their employees had expressed scepticism about whether Arattai would ever gain traction.
He stressed Zoho’s focus on long-term research and development instead of short-term profits. The company is working on compilers, databases, operating systems, security, hardware, chip design, robotics, and AI. It has also invested in R&D-heavy firms that may not yield immediate returns.
Vembu said that Zoho functioned like an industrial research lab that also generated enough revenue to fund itself. He explained that the company essentially ignored short-term profits as long as it did not lose money and highlighted its culture of founders and senior executives living frugally, similar to how good scientists and engineers at ISRO lived. To him, he added, that was the essence of Bharat.
He compared this philosophy to Japan’s development model during its growth phase. "Imagine saying all that to Wall Street or Dalal Street!" he remarked, underlining Zoho’s reluctance to go public.
Earlier, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw endorsed Zoho’s suite for documents and spreadsheets. "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 posted on X.