Podcast | Story of the Day: Kimbho? kutra tvam? read, where is Kimbho?

“We clean up our bodies, and then we will clean up our democracy!” Baba Ramdev was quoted as saying eight years ago by no less a publication than The New York Times.

Perhaps, he should first think of cleaning up the app that his company launched only on Wednesday. Kimbho, the #swadeshi answer to WhatsApp was launched by Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali on Wednesday, the 30th of May. It seems to have vanished from Play Store earlier today, but seems to have come back up now. It’s almost like Where On Earth is Carmen Kimbho? Ab Bharat Bolega, is the tagline of the app. But all that Bharat is asking now is – Kimbho, kutra tvam? Kimbho, where are you? Whether or not Kimbho exists, what it is all about, and what does Elliot Alderson (the French hacker, not the character from Mr Robot) have to say about Kimbho – all that is our story of the day.

Bhraataah evam bhaginyah, kimbho? Even before I could say, “Brothers and Sisters, what’s up” on the app, it seemed to have snuck out of Play Store. But it seems to have come back up now.

Yesterday, Patanjali's spokesperson SK Tijarawala, in a tweet, stated: "Now Bharat will speak. After launching SIM cards, Baba Ramdev has launched a new messaging application called Kimbho. Now WhatsApp will be given a competition. Our own #SwadeshiMessaging platform. Download it directly from Google Play Store."

In a country where the spiritual is never too far from the political, and the political has always been in cahoots with the capital, Baba Ramdev, erstwhile Ram Kisan Yadav, is the picture of that ever-elusive synergy, a synergy that is a saffron-clad, yogic combination of saattvik and savvy.

The latest salvo out of his saffron stables is Kimbho, which hopes to rid the country of the WhatsApp-mania it is currently in the grips of. This move, while out of the blue, should have been expected. The ascetic sanyasi and yoga guru – who just happens to sell everything from toothpaste to dish wash soap to floor cleaner (with gau mutra as an ingredient, no less) – has always been on the anti-foreign brand brigade.

With the launch of Patanjali products nationwide, he had once famously said, “The ‘gate’ in Colgate will shut, Pantene will wet its pants, the lever of Unilever will break down, and the little Nestlé bird will fly away.” Sure enough - since 2012, Patanjali’s revenue has climbed twentyfold, from $69 million to $1.6 billion. It is the fastest-growing company in the Indian consumer goods category.

Patanjali’s turnover in 2016-2017 was to the tune of about 10,200 crore rupees ($1.6 billion), much of which came from eating into revenues generated by foreign conglomerates. Seen in that light, this move to take on WhatsApp seems completely on brand.

But how good is the product itself? Let’s examine that first.

First up, the Kimbho website, at the time of my saying this remains in shut down mode with a message that says – “We are facing extremely high traffic on Kimbho. We are in process of upgrading our servers and will be back shortly. Sorry for the inconvenience. Please stay tuned.”

On Kimbho, just like on WhatsApp, one can either send direct messages to the person or create new groups to send out messages. Apart from this, one can form broadcast lists, follow celebrities, and also doodle using Kimbho app. Google Play Store describes Kimbho as a real time messaging app. "Kimbho empowers private group chat with free phone and video calling. It has dozens of amazing features to share text audio, photos, videos, stickers, quickies, location, GIF, Doodle and more," the description reads.

Our sister publication Firstpost carries a detailed review of the app. The article talks about how similar the app’s interface is to WhatsApp, and goes on to say, “To begin with, the logo is pretty much the same as WhatsApp's. Except the telephone icon in the middle of the chat bubbles in WhatsApp, Kimbho's logo has a conch in that chat bubble, assuming that is how people would call each other in the ancient ages.” On point.

Much of the features are similar to what you would expect on a messaging platform, except for a few, let’s say, colourful variations. Text shortcuts here are called ‘Quickies’, but also include a ‘Raam Raam’. We do not know if that’s a case of ‘nudge-nudge-wink-wink’ or simply one of unintended irony. Another case of irony – their assertions on privacy. The Kimbho team claims, “Every message is end-to-end encrypted and secured by Advanced Encryption Standard".

This is where French security researcher Elliot Alderson comes in.

In a series of tweets, he went on a systematic takedown of the app, perhaps forcing the Kimbho team to take down the app. He tweeted, “Hi @KimbhoApp before trying to compete #WhatsApp, you can try to secure your app. It's possible to choose a security code between 0001 and 9999 and send it to the number of your choice #kimbhoApp.”

And sure enough, he attached a video alongside where the OTPs were a serial 0001, 0002, 0003, etc. In further tweets, he said, “This @KimbhoApp is a joke, next time before making press statements, hire competent developers... If it is not clear, for the moment don't install this app.” He also claimed that he could access the messages of all users. Furthermore, many other keen-eyed tweeters observed that the app was a copy paste of another app. Even the description and the screenshots in the app stores are the same, and that the app was making a request for Bolo messenger! Sure enough, when you make a request for an OTP, the text you receive says “IX-BOLOAP”. The screenshots for this #swadeshi app have AT&T as the carrier with Fremont, California as the location.

All we can say is a quick ‘Raam Raam!’
The Kimbho fiasco comes close on the heels of yet another venture from the Ramdev industry. This time, in the telecom sector. First, a clarification. The Indian Express reported that Baba Ramdev is NOT launching a #swadeshi SIM. It is not available for the general public, but is only for its 200,000 strong employee base and linked organisations.

At an event two days ago, Baba Ramdev launched Swadeshi Samriddhi SIM cards, in alliance with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). Initially, only the employees and office bearers of Patanjali will be able to avail the benefits of the SIM card.

After its full-fledged launch – and we do not yet know the ifs and whens of this – people will get discount of 10 per cent on Patanjali products with this card. With a recharge of Rs 144, one would be able to make unlimited calls across the country, get 2 GB data pack and send 100 SMSs.

Apart from this, people will also get health, accidental and life insurances.

Speaking on the occasion, Ramdev said government-owned BSNL is a 'Swadeshi network' and the motive of both Patanjali and BSNL is the welfare of the country. "There are five lakh counters of BSNL and from there people can soon get Patanjali swadeshi-samradhi card," Ramdev said.

Talking about the company's motive "prosperity for charity", he further said that in addition to attractive data and call package, the card also comes with the medical and life insurance covers of Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, respectively. However, the covers could only be availed in the case of road accident.

Like we said, the details of the rollout of the Swadeshi Samriddhi SIM are still unclear, but that did not stop Twitter from having a field day. Jokes trickled in, in a steady stream. Mostly about gau mutra. One tweet read, “If you type wine/rum/vodka using patanjali sim it’ll get autocorrected to Gau Mutra instantly”; another asked, “Is it true that to activate International Roaming on #PatanjaliSim you have to put few drops of Gaumutra on it?”; yet another was concerned about health and safety – “If you dial emergency number 100 on #PatanjaliSIM, call will be directed to nearest mandir.”

Oh Twitter, how we love thee.
Jokes aside, what must be borne in mind and perhaps even celebrated is the steady diversification and massive expansion of what began as a tiny venture selling jadi-booti. In the early 1990s, Baba Ramdev was but an unknown yoga teacher dispensing some homemade Ayurvedic medications. All he had back then was yoga, and a close friend and confidante, Acharya Balkrishna, now CEO of Patanjali, and with about $6.1 billion to his name, one of the richest men in India.

Karamveer Maharaj was Ramdev’s first guru, who accepted him to be his protégé under two conditions: that he remain celibate and never accept money if he began to give lessons himself. The pharmacy, which was run by Balkrishna, was run under the aegis of a trust – the Divya Yog Pharmacy Trust. “When Divya Pharmacy was set up, we hardly had the money to pay for the registration,” Ramdev told Business Today. "For the first three years, till 1998, we distributed the medicines free. From buying the raw materials to grinding and mixing, we did everything ourselves," he added.

But the popularity of the pharmacy, and Baba Ramdev, only continued to grow. Ben Crair in his profile of Ramdev for Bloomberg, went on to say, “By 2005, Balkrishna was raking in so much money—and handling it so loosely—that Indian authorities raided the pharmacy as part of a tax-evasion investigation. But a local official, Jitender Rana, told Pathak-Narain (a biographer of Baba Ramdev) that he was ordered by his superiors to desist. “Too many people in power were protecting Ramdev,” the book quotes him as saying. “I came to my senses and left.””

In 2005, the austere and money-shunning Karmaveer Maharaj left the ashram under mysterious circumstances. But not before claiming to be disgruntled by the ways of Baba Ramdev. Ramdev had promised he would teach yoga for free, but he began charging people to sit closer to the stage, according to Bhakti Mehta, a TV executive. She traveled with Ramdev to Britain in 2006, where, she said, he required an £11,000 (then $20,000) donation for a home visit and stood on a cloth that could be rolled up to easily collect the money people threw at his feet. At around the same time, an ayurvedic doctor who had let Ramdev and Balkrishna run the pharmacy under his license, was murdered. Not long after, on a day that Baba Ramdev was not in the country, the figurehead of the ashram, one Shankar Dev, disappeared. Dev left only a note that said, “I have taken some loan from you for this trust but cannot repay it. Please forgive me. I am leaving.” Shankar Dev was never seen again.

By this time, Ramdev was a familiar face on TV. My own first encounter with him was on a channel my mother was hooked to – Aastha TV, a network Ramdev’s Patanjali now owns. Ramdev and Balkrishna saw a future for the pharmacy well beyond medicine. They imagined a line of ordinary household products that could help a person “connect with the soul” and “move toward divinity.” The two had always managed the ashram and their businesses through trusts, but in 2006, Ramdev registered Patanjali as a corporation. And thus began the Patanjali story.

Patanjali’s reach now extends well beyond Baba Ramdev Happydent-smile that we see on every manner of household and personal care and edible product.

Only recently, with intervention from the PMO, as the Asian Age reported, three new channels were given approval – Aastha Kannada, Aastha Tamil, and Aastha Telugu.

Patanjali is now making clothes now under the name ‘Patanjali Paridhaan.’ In case you were wondering if it’s just kurta-pyjama, no, the label has jeans too. They are not yet in the market, but likely to be available starting June of this year.

Patanjali Ayurved had formally launched its e-commerce operations with website patanjaliayurved.net earlier this year. It has nearly 5,000 retail outlets across India.

Patanjali has also branched out into private security, offering army-like training for recruits.

Earlier this year, Baba Ramdev in a massive push for online availability of Patanjali Ayurveda's products announced partnership with eight e-tailers. Patanjali Ayurveda has now tied-up with Amazon, Flipkart, ShopClues, bigbasket, 1mgOfficial, Grofers and NetMeds.

A lot of these expansion plans have paid off too. This year, Patanjali Ayurved Limited has also been ranked as India's most trusted Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) brand in the TRA's Brand Trust Report 2018. The GST and demonetization bumps have hit the brand, according to Acharya Balkrishna, who went on to note that their revenues for the latest fiscal remain unchanged from last year’s, at about 10200 crore rupees, although they had claimed that they would double it with this fiscal. The GST and demonetization arguments don’t quite hold water considering other FMCG firms have ended the year with strong growth. That notwithstanding, it must be acknowledged that the rise until this fiscal year has been nothing short of meteoric. Heck, even LVMH – the group company holding luxury brands like Louis Vuitton – wanted to invest as much as $500 million in Patanjali!

The other brands have wizened up. Big FMCG firms, thus far, had not leveraged their herbal offerings much. But in the wake of the Patanjali disruption, most consumer goods makers have bolstered their herbal offerings. Hindustan Unilever, the country’s largest FMCG firm, bought ayurveda hair-care brand Indulekha in 2015. Last year, it launched its herbal personal care brand Ayush. In 2016, oral care company Colgate, too, launched a herbal toothpaste. Kishore Biyani-led Future Group is in the process of buying Gujarat-based Athena Life Science's Iraya - a company that deals in ayurvedic personal care products. Among the products that Iraya sells are ayurvedic oil, neem and basil soap, facial massage cream, nutrifying skin food, hair gel and face wash, among others. It also manufactures ayurvedic products for anti dandruff and hair re-growth treatment.

Patanjali was and is a leader in a niche marketspace. Its success might have proven to be its biggest hindrance now considering that the herbal offerings space is no longer niche – something Patanjali helped do – and other bigger firms are leveraging their brands within this space. Perhaps it is this that has forced Patanjali to look elsewhere to bolster its reputation, and enhance its recall value, and expand its user base. The Chat business isn’t exactly a money-churning business. WhatsApp in India doesn’t make much money, and neither do the Indian messaging companies. Kimbho, with its conch for a symbol, is unlikely to turn in a profit, but what Patanjali hopes is that the Kimbho conch would make enough noise to expand its social base.

The ads for the Patanjali cow-urine floor cleaner urge consumers to “save the country from the economic exploitation of foreign companies.” In his fiery speeches and on television, Ramdev has blamed India’s unhealthy bodies on foreign products, which he has called “poison.” “The biggest goal is to bring prestige to India and Indian identity within the country and the world,” Ramdev said in 2014. “And that journey begins from yoga, from ayurveda.” Well, he has the yoga and the Ayurveda. And a set of television channels. They have all benefitted from the #swadeshi clarion call. And now with Kimbho, he is hoping that the clarion call would amplify enabling Patanjali the next jump. If only the app developers got their act together. Until then, all we can say is ‘Raam Raam!’