Sridhar Vembu on Arattai's Drop: Why Mockers Are Wasting Their Time

In an interview with ANI, the co-founder of Zoho responded to WhatsApp testing a feature that would allow users to message people on other platforms and opened up about his idea of cross-compatibility between messaging apps. Answering a query on this, Vembu emphasised that their app, Arattai, is gaining strength and is exploring various options to enhance its value. He noted that credible competition is essential for opening up the ecosystem.

"There's nothing going wrong. I think, first of all, the idea that something went wrong is what is wrong. It is a normal course of events. Nothing goes straight to the moon. You have to go through these ups and downs. And the trick to companies that survive is they have a long-term view on this. In fact, I never thought The number one is anything big. In fact, I literally told our employees, this is a particular moment, it won't last. But we are here to, you know, it's not, it's five year, 10 year, 15 year trajectory for us. So that's why I simply don't pay attention. And the people who pay attention and making fun of this, they are wasting their time. That's all I'll say. We are not wasting time. I am sitting and we are sitting and focused on code. So I said, don't worry about it," said Vembu.

"Our strategy in all this, the messaging is very core. And we have been working on it for 10 years. So this one month is nothing for us. We will continue this and we have a really strong app. It's getting stronger. In fact, there is an update landing today or tomorrow and then another update in two weeks. Every one or two weeks now we have updates. And we are also building an ecosystem of apps around it and we are studying every possible angle by which that we can add value. And the second is, If we don't have competition, you can't keep the monopolist honest. The only thing that keeps a monopolist honest is competition. And you already noticed, I think WhatsApp is sending signals that maybe they will open it up, right? Remember why it happened? It happened because Aretai launched, basically. And they know that we are determined. We know that we won't give up. And that's how you open up these ecosystems. You have to have credible competition," added Vembu.

In response to another question regarding end-to-end encryption of chats, a feature for which Arattai has faced questions, Vembu stated that the encryption feature has been fully implemented. However, he noted that it will take more time for the updates to take effect, and an update will be provided in a couple of days.

" I already posted screenshots of it. Based on the feedback we received, we are going to go with option two, which is that all of, you know, it's a system-wide mandate. But it will take us some time. So tomorrow or day after, in a couple of days, we'll have an update. And then another two weeks we have an update because one thing about end-to-end encryption is that you have to have a backup," added Vembu.

Answering the question on the future of Artificial Intelligence and whether AI is a bubble, Vembu stated that the excitement surrounding AI is beginning to fade, which is a typical occurrence with any trending technology. He emphasised that their focus is on developing long-term technologies and that he does not operate in a pure hype-driven environment.

"As of last week, already there are signs in the US technology sector, the US stock market, that there is a pronounced cooling. And even in the US financial system, on Wall Street, people have started asking questions about all of this. We are talking about, you know, two, three trillion dollar commitments, investment commitments, and not sufficient even revenue, leave alone profit to pay for all that investment. And last week, just, you know, there were reports about OpenAI, CFO, CEO talking about a government backstop for all this. Then there was a lot of pushback. And so it is, you know, this, this whole current hype cycle is cooling off. This doesn't mean that AI is, you know, that's not true. The internet, we had a dot-com bust. Only after that, the internet really took off. So first we have to cool the hype in anything, by the way, it's the same thing with other type. I really don't care to operate in pure hype environment. We are here to produce really long-term technology," asserted Vembu.

Earlier, Zoho introduced a major update to its note-taking application, Zoho Notebook, adding advanced artificial intelligence (AI) features under its in-house AI platform, Zia.

The company has also expanded the free student edition to include Notebook AI, allowing students to access the same intelligent tools as business users. According to a press release by Zoho, the new version of Zoho Notebook is designed to change the way individuals and teams capture and manage knowledge. The AI-powered update simplifies note-taking, organisation, and collaboration, helping users find and use information more easily.

- ANI