Truecaller has hit a landmark of 250 million monthly active users (MAU) and 200 million daily active users (DAU) worldwide with its mobile application for caller identification and spam blocking.
According to the company’s press release, the Sequoia-backed firm, which has claimed India as its largest market, has reported 185 million MAU and 150 million DAU from the region. India has contributed 74 percent to MAU and 75 percent to Truecaller’s DAU, as per the above estimates.
In eight months, the Stockholm based business added 50 million MAUs. It surpassed MAU 200 million in February 2020 and MAU 100 million in April 2018, respectively.
Alan Mamedi, CEO and co-founder of Truecaller, commenting on the progress, said, “Truecaller was designed with the vision of making communication more productive for all, and this is what has fuelled this remarkable growth over the years.” This vision began with caller ID, but now also provides so much more, including blocking SMS and even digital loans.
In addition to caller ID and spam filtering, Truecalller also has flash messaging, call recording, internet chat and voice features, and UPI digital payment features. Although the company does not have a large UPI share, instant loans (through third party lenders) up to Rs 5 lakh with an annual interest rate of 16 percent have also begun to be disbursed.
Along with WhatsApp , Facebook, Messenger and Youtube, the 185 million MAUs in India position Truecaller among the top MAU commanding platforms in the world. TikTok used to have MAUs of over 200 million. However, since the last week of June, the short video entertainment app owned by Bytedance has been banned in India.
Importantly, in the second half of last month, the vernacular social network ShareChat, which recently launched TikTo’s clone Moj, also reported to surpass 160 million monthly active users.
Although the firm is positive about lending monetization, analysts agree that the lending industry is overcrowded and that by providing third-party loans, it is unlikely to generate substantial revenue. For Truecaller, ads and subscription would be major revenue sources.
