Communications and caller ID platform Truecaller has opened its largest office space outside Sweden in Bengaluru, instilling optimism in its largest market, which according to the Sequoia-backed company is poised for a two-fold growth in user base over the next three years.
The caller ID platform, which expects its user base in India to touch 500 million from 248 million currently by 2026, has leased a 30,000 square feet office, with a capacity of accommodating 250 employees. The office was inaugurated virtually by the Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship & Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, Rajeev Chandrasekhar on March 16.
"Today, we have about 55 percent of connected smartphones in India using our service, more or less every day. If we just keep the same pace, India is expected to have around 700-800 million connected smartphones by 2026," said Alan Mamedi, co-founder and CEO of Truecaller at the launch.
"So in three years, if we just continue to evolve as we are doing and continue to grow as we do, we should have around 400 or 500 million users by then," Mamedi added.
India is Truecaller's biggest market as the company has about 248 million monthly active users in the country currently, while globally, it has a user base of 338 million monthly active users.
The launch of Truecaller's new office space in India comes at a time when advertising revenue has slowed down globally. Truecaller earns about 80 percent of its revenue from advertisements, while 10 percent comes from subscriptions and 10 percent comes from Truecaller for business. However, Mamedi is optimistic about the India market.
"We saw a slowness in growth (in the previous quarter), but we still grew. And the main reason (for the slowness) was that the smartphone sales in India during Q4 ( Oct-Dec) actually went down by almost 40 percent," said Mamedi.
"Despite that, we grew in the fourth quarter. We are seeing more positive trends. Now it is seeing like it is picking up again, smartphone sales. So my sense is that 2023 will continue to be a strong year for India and in general," Mamedi added.
In December, Truecaller launched a digital government directory making it easier for Indian citizens to contact government officials. This directory provides Truecaller users access to all government helplines, educational institutions, law enforcement agencies, hospitals, and other key departments across 23 states and union territories.
"This directory has 14,000 verified numbers from the government. This covers about 20 Central ministries, and about 25 state Ministries as well. This basically allows consumers and citizens to be sure that the agency that they're speaking to, is really that government agency, and avoids all sorts of scams and fraud which are on the rise," said Rishit Jhunjhunwala, Chief Product Officer and Managing Director India, Truecaller.
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