In a recent media release the company announced that is had identified Sri Lanka as an opportunity for the application to further extend this service to millions of users across Sri Lanka. With that in the limelight, below are excerpts of an interview conducted with Kari Krishnamurthy, Vice President of Growth and Partnerships of Truecaller Asia, Middle East and Africa.
Q: What is the concept behind Truecaller?
Truecaller is a mobile app that helps users take the right call and reach people through the world’s most comprehensive global phone directory. Truecaller is meant to make the mobile environment more secure, because if you think about it, if someone you don’t know is calling you on your phone, that person has received your phone number from somewhere, and you have the right to know who that person is.
There are three defining features of Truecaller. These are, Search, Caller ID and Spam Blocker. Truecaller helps users easily search for any number in the world whether if it’s a landline, mobile or pre-paid number. Truecaller users can also search for names (only if they are in your social circle). When you request for somebody’s contact information, an SMS will be sent to the person asking if you want to share you information or not. The person will have the choice of; share his/hers contact details, decline or block that user from ever contacting him/her again.
The solution gives them the knowledge of who is trying to get in touch with them by instantly knowing who is calling before they pick up, even if the number is landline, mobile or pre-paid. This feature is only available for Android, BlackBerry, Symbian S60 & Nokia X devices.
The innovative application also gives users immediate access to an expansive list of top spammers, allowing them to quickly block calls from all numbers reported as spam. Truecaller users contribute information and report spammers in order to make the entire Truecaller community smarter.
Q: Why is it an important application in this digital age?
The biggest reason behind our rapid growth globally is that we solve a major pain point for our users. Truecaller recognizes the needs of different individuals, businesses, and professionals around the world. One of the biggest problems a mobile user encounters is spam. Especially with the mobile penetration increasing rapidly across the globe.
The ultimate benefit to users through Truecaller, is that they control how their contact information is shared, and how others can contact them. They are able to guard their most personal accessory (their mobile phone) by eliminating the annoyance of unwanted calls, while making it easier for people they want to hear from to find them. Truecaller can act as their personal assistant by telling them who is calling so that they can identify a long lost friend, meet their taxi driver, or reassure their credit card company that they were the one who made the large purchase overseas.
Q: What are the global statistics for spam callers?
With a user base that stands at over 85 million, Truecaller blocks and identifies over 7 million unwanted calls per day, globally. Truecaller gives users immediate access to an expansive list of top spammers, allowing them to quickly block calls from all numbers reported as spam. Truecaller users contribute information and report spammers in order to make the entire Truecaller community smarter.
Q: Why did you decide in entering Sri Lanka?
Sri Lanka has a growing smart phone usage and people are getting more tech-savvy. And considering that India is our fastest growing and biggest market in the world, we have seen that word of mouth has start spreading to surrounding regions, which includes Sri Lanka. Whenever we see a market that starts picking up we of course want to pay attention to that.
Q: What are your key insights of the local market?
Just this year, we have increased our user base from 10,000 users to over 70,000 users. On top of that we have over 28,000 numbers that has been reported as spam from our users in Sri Lanka, a number that is constantly growing. This is a clear sign of the popularity of Truecaller in Sri Lanka based on the great value that’s being provided to users.
Q: How are you planning to take the application message across through Sri Lanka?
Even though we are a global brand, we think it is important to localize and understand different market and cultural behaviors. To get a special insight to the country, we have a Sri Lankan in the team, and apart from that we many volunteer brand ambassadors in Sri Lanka that help us promote the service.
Photo Caption - Kari Krishnamurthy, Vice President of Growth and Partnerships of Truecaller Asia, Middle East and Africa.
