These Indian apps were launched, but failed to achieve their intended features.
Desi Apps vs. WhatsApp: India's Indian messenger app, Arattai, is in the news. This app is competing directly with WhatsApp. This app offers many features that WhatsApp doesn't offer. But did you know that before Arattai, several messenger apps were launched to compete with WhatsApp, but they failed to survive in the market for long? Learn about those apps in detail here.
Desi Apps vs. WhatsApp: WhatsApp has users worldwide. Millions of people use this app in India alone. Because WhatsApp not only connects users with their loved ones but also protects their privacy. WhatsApp's dominance is such that before Arattai, many Indian apps were launched, and many tried to compete with WhatsApp. However, due to some shortcomings, they failed to survive for long. India also saw the emergence of several such Indian (Made-in-India) apps, or messenger apps that connect people. However, they didn't capture the hearts of users for long. Today, we'll learn about the apps that came to compete with WhatsApp before Arattai and then disappeared.
Which Indian messaging apps came before Arattai?
Hike Messenger
Hike is an Indian messenger app. It was very popular from 2012 to 2019. Hike Messenger was launched on December 12, 2012, by Kavin Bharti Mittal. Hike had many unique features, such as stickers, hidden chat, offline messaging, themes, group chats with a capacity of up to 1,000 members, and local language support. Hike was a popular app in India after its launch. By 2016, it had become the second-largest messaging app in India, with over 100 million users. But competition from global platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger increased, making it increasingly difficult for Hike to retain users. Hike even introduced new features to retain its users. However, slow innovation and tough competition caused Hike to lag behind. In January 2021, the Hike app was officially shut down.
Kimbho
In 2018, Patanjali Ayurved launched a local WhatsApp app, Kimbho, to compete with WhatsApp. The company's slogan for this app was "Now India will speak." It offered features similar to WhatsApp, including text messaging, video/voice calling, stickers, group chats, and media sharing. Upon launch, the app garnered over 1 billion downloads from the Google Play Store. However, due to security flaws, data protection issues, and poor user interface, it had to be removed. However, Patanjali later announced that the app was only a "trial version" and that its final version would be launched soon, but it never came.
Sandes
In 2020, the Sandes app was launched to compete with WhatsApp. This app was launched by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), a government organization. Like WhatsApp, this app also offered text messages, voice/video calls, document sharing, and image-video sending. The app even boasted end-to-end encryption. However, due to the lack of advanced features like WhatsApp and Telegram, the app failed to gain much traction. Furthermore, the app was initially considered a government app, which also contributed to its low popularity among users.
JioChat
Reliance Jio also launched its own app, JioChat, to compete with WhatsApp. Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. launched this app in 2015. Like WhatsApp, this app also offered features like text messaging, voice/video calls, document, image and video sharing, group chats, and sticker sending. However, Jio's indigenous messaging app failed to match WhatsApp's popularity.
Why did these apps fail to compete with WhatsApp?
Security and Privacy: The biggest reason is privacy and security. WhatsApp offers users features like end-to-end encryption and password/OTP security. However, indigenous apps like Kimbho lacked privacy and security features. This led to users losing trust in these apps, and these apps lagged behind WhatsApp.
Feature Updates: The features available in WhatsApp are also one of the reasons. WhatsApp offers a wide range of features to its users. Even the user interface is smooth. Whereas, indigenous apps often lacked features like WhatsApp's or new updates were delayed.
Network Effect: The most important thing in messaging apps is which app all your friends, family, or contacts are using. You'll need to use the app accordingly to stay connected with them. So, if all your friends and family use WhatsApp, you'll likely use it too, even if another app offers better features.
Tough Competition: Not only WhatsApp, but global apps like Telegram, Signal, and Messenger also emerged, with significant user bases. Consequently, not only WhatsApp, but other international apps also emerged to challenge the local apps.
