Smartphone application for caller identification and spam blocking, Truecaller has reached a milestone of 250 million monthly active users (MAU) and 200 million daily active users (DAU) globally.
The Sequoia-backed firm, which has been claiming India as its biggest market, has recorded 185 million MAU and 150 million DAU from the country, according to the company’s press release. As per the above-mentioned figures, India has contributed 74% in MAU and 75% in Truecaller’s DAU.
The Stockholm-based company added 50 million MAUs in eight months. It had reached 200 million MAU in February 2020 and 100 million MAU in April 2018.
Commenting on the development, Alan Mamedi, CEO and co-founder, Truecaller said, “Truecaller was built with the vision to make communication more effective for everyone and this is what has fueled this spectacular growth over the years. This vision started with caller ID but now also offers so much more including SMS blocking and even digital loans.”
Besides caller ID and spam blocking, Truecalller also has features of flash-messaging, call-recording, chat and voice over internet and digital payments feature via UPI. While the company doesn’t have a significant share in UPI, it also started disbursing instant loans (through third party lenders) upto Rs 5 lakh with 16% annual interest rate.
The 185 million MAUs in India places Truecaller among the top MAU commanding platforms in the country along with WhatsApp, Facebook, Messenger and Youtube. TikTok used to have over 200 million MAUs. However, the Bytedance-owned short video entertainment app has been banned in India since the last week of June.
Importantly, vernacular social network ShareChat that recently launched TikTo’s clone Moj also claimed to cross 160 million monthly active users in the second half of the last month.
While the company is optimistic about monetization via lending, experts believe that the lending market is overcrowded and it’s unlikely to build sizable revenue via offering third party loans. Advertising and subscription will be major revenue channels for Truecaller.
