Zoho’s messaging app Arattai had the kind of week startups dream about: a sudden rush of attention and a towering signup spike, from roughly 3,000 a day to about 350,000. Social feeds lit up. The “Made in India” cheer grew loud. But strip away the noise and the story, as told by OkCredit CEO Harsh Pokharna, is far less dramatic: this isn’t a WhatsApp moment. It’s a media moment.
Arattai is Just Another Whatsapp Copy: Harsh Pokharna
Pokharna’s verdict is unsparing. Arattai, he says, is “just another WhatsApp copy,” a competent clone without the kind of breakthrough that forces people to rebuild their habits. The emotion is real, “it’s made in India”, but emotion doesn’t migrate networks. Users don’t switch their default chat app because they feel patriotic; they switch when the new thing is unmistakably better. In Pokharna’s framing, that threshold is simple and unforgiving: 10x.
That’s why he sees the surge not as a market shift but as a spotlight grab. “This isn’t about beating WhatsApp. This is about staying in the news,” he argues. The mechanics are straightforward: every headline, every tweet, every tricolour emoji around Arattai floats Zoho’s brand. And that halo, he says, pays out where Zoho actually earns, its B2B products like HR and Mail. In other words, even if users don’t abandon WhatsApp, the attention still compounds value for Zoho.
There’s a practical truth buried in his take. Messaging is where habit and network effects are strongest; inertia isn’t a bug, it’s the moat. A spike can crash servers, but retention is built on daily, differentiated utility. If the app does what the incumbent already does and doesn’t do it meaningfully better, the download curve flattens as fast as it rose.
So where does that leave Arattai? In Pokharna’s telling, with a win that looks different from the one the hype implies. The campaign worked: the brand is louder than it was a week ago. But the crown hasn’t moved. His closing line doubles as a filter for any future challenger: patriotism can’t beat product–market fit. Only a step-change product can.
Also Read: The Sudden Surge of Arattai and the Questions It Raises
