Truecaller beats Facebook, becomes 4th most downloaded app in India: Report

Surpassing Facebook, leading communication app Truecaller has become the fourth most downloaded application in India on Google Play Store and is delivering over 1 lakh clicks in a day to in-app advertisers.

According to the "Mary Meeker Internet Trends 2017" report, WhatsApp leads the list of the most downloaded app, followed by Messenger and ShareIt.

"Our biggest strength is the engagement and undivided attention we can provide to advertisers," Tejinder Gill, Vice President, Sales and Head of India Operations at Truecaller, said in a statement.

"We can deliver a brand's message and enable them to stay on top of the consumer's mind simply by the fact that we are not an 'appointment viewing' app. This is proven by the fact that over 70 per cent of our advertisers is repeat customers, which assures us of the efficacy of our platform," Gill added.

Homegrown entertainment app JioTV jumped maximum points from 301 last to ninth this year -- and surpassed Facebook Lite (lighter version of Facebook for low connection speeds).

The report said India's internet users now stands at 355 million putting the country number two in the market just behind China.
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WhatsApp buys into Modi's vision, to launch digital payments in India first

Instant messaging app WhatsApp, owned by Facebook Inc, is mulling a foray into digital payment services in India, its first such offering globally, and has advertised to hire a digital transactions lead in the country.

A WhatsApp move into digital payments in India, its biggest market that is home to 200 million of its billion plus global users, would replicate similar moves by messaging apps like Tencent Holdings Ltd's WeChat in China.

WhatsApp is working to launch person-to-person payments in India in the next six months, news website The Ken reported earlier on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.

A job advertisement on WhatsApp's website said it was looking for a candidate with a technical and financial background - who understands India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and the BHIM payments app that enable money transfers and merchant payments using mobile numbers - to be its digital transactions lead for the country.

"India is an important country for WhatsApp, and we're understanding how we can contribute more to the vision of Digital India," a WhatsApp spokesman said, referring to a flagship government programme that aims to boost the use of Internet-based services in the country.

"We're exploring how we might work with companies that share this vision and continuing to listen closely to feedback from our users," the spokesman said, declining to elaborate further.

Digital transactions in India have surged after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's shock ban of certain high-value banknotes in November that accounted for more than 80 per cent of the country's currency in circulation at the time.

In February, WhatsApp's co-founder, Brian Acton, had told local media that the app was in early stages of investigating digital payments in the country and that he had talked to the Indian government about the matter.

Just last week, Swedish communications app Truecaller, which has a large user base in India, started a mobile payment service in the country based on the UPI platform. (READ MORE)