Truecaller Notices 28-30% Spike in Digital Mobile Recharges

Truecaller, an online caller-identification application, also provides UPI based payments through its platform. During March 2020, it saw a surge in mobile recharges through its platform leading to a 25-30% increase says Sandeep Patil, MD India, Truecaller.

During the lockdown, when people are in their homes, the spending of people on consumer durables and travelling has stopped. But spending on essential services is still going on. This has impacted online transactions.

Sandeep Patil, MD-India, Truecaller said, “While business have been affected tremendously during this lockdown, Trucaller’s services have become more relevant due to the current scenario. However, we are doing well in terms of taking care of employees and customers. We are stepped up in terms of serving people. Our core proposition around spam-blocking and identification has become more relevant and our calling and messaging features have also seen a good uptick during the crisis.”

Truecaller has shifted all its donations to PM CARES fund to support the government to fight the crisis. "The company has also launched a Covid-19 helpline across 5 countries including India, Sweden, Egypt and few others to spread correct information and details related to the pandemic. We are doing thousands of calls on a daily basis in India," stated Patil.

Truecaller provides a vital service and have been fine-tuning its algorithms and analysed the data its users' report. For instance, we look at call volumes to see if there are any anomalies. There is a general uptake in the spam calls around the world, stated Patil. The lending arm of Truecaller is also live wherein they have whitelisted and but the company wouldn’t want to promote it.

"Currently, people are focusing more on current loans thinking about the moratorium and taking advantage of it. It is quite mindful for users to stay focus on unpaid loans. But this time is giving us to learn about user adoption. Demand has been through the roof in terms of people completing the forms. We are trying to improve the underlining process and will bring it to the fore once the economy really starts opening up, " informed Patil.

India is in a better position if we hadn’t gone for a lockdown. However, it has started to affect the economy including the masses at the bottom of the pyramid. India needs to have a calculated approach which the government is keeping in mind while opening a few services, said Patil.  

As per a Truecaller report, India is on the 5 position in terms of highest spam calls among the top 20 countries across the globe. One of its other reports also highlighted that 8 out of 10 women receive harassment and nuisance calls.      

Truecaller has had 70 % growth in terms of revenue and its userbase is growing at 30% with being a profitable company. Its branches are spread across the world including Stockholm, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Gurgaon and Nairobi.