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Harsh Pokharna (left); Sridhar Vembu (right)
OkCredit CEO Harsh Pokharna has received severe backlash on social media after criticising Zoho’s newly introduced homegrown messaging platform Arattai.
After the CEO called Arattai “just another WhatsApp copy” with “no real innovation”, a heated debate has erupted among netizens.
“Sridhar Vembu’s Arattai will NOT replace WhatsApp in India,” Harsh Pokharna claimed in a LinkedIn post.
He even went on to say that Arattai’s recent surge in popularity, with traffic jumping from 3,000 to 350,000 daily sign-ups, was more about marketing than disruption.
“Arattai is just another WhatsApp copy. Nothing new. No real innovation, except the emotion ‘it’s made in India,’” he wrote, adding that users switch apps only when “the product is 10x better.”
Pokharna remarked that the app’s growth was a PR move designed to keep Sridhar Vembu’s Zoho in the spotlight.
“This isn’t about beating WhatsApp. This is about staying in the news. It’s a PR play,” Pokharna said, reasoning Arattai’s surge in downloads was unlikely to beat WhatsApp.
The OkCredit CEO explained that every headline, every tweet, every ‘Made in India’ cheer just pushes Zoho’s brand up.
“So yeah, Arattai’s traffic may crash servers. But it won’t shake WhatsApp,” he said.
According to Pokharna, the app is further from “revolution” but only a marketing campaign.
“And no matter how strong the hype gets, patriotism can’t beat product-market fit,” he concluded.
Netizens respond
Pokharna’s post triggered widespread backlash from social media users defending the swadeshi product Arattai.
“Would you ask the same question to people in China who use WeChat instead of WhatsApp or in Russia who use Yandex instead of Google?” a user commented, calling Arattai a “great step in the right direction.”
“It’s still too soon to judge,” said another user. “Every product starts as 'just another copy' until it isn’t. WhatsApp wasn’t the first messenger either.”
A user remarked, “Everyone’s calling Arattai a failed “WhatsApp clone.” but that’s the wrong lens; Zoho never plays consumer games. They build trust funnels, not chat apps. every Zoho product is a moat to protect the core; privacy, sovereignty, and enterprise credibility.”
“Calling it a WhatsApp copy misses the point,” pointed out another individual. “What Zoho’s doing is proof that Indian companies can build, launch, and dare to compete in spaces we usually avoid.”
“Is WhatsApp an innovation?” asked a user. “It's a copy of Yahoo! Messenger. Every product makes some incremental improvement and tries to capture the market.”
About Harsh Pokharna
Harsh is an entrepreneur known for his inspiring journey from being a student leader at IIT Kanpur to becoming a startup founder and angel investor. He is the co-founder and CEO of OkCredit, a digital ledger app for small businesses that started in 2017.