Lot of headroom for growth in India for Truecaller: CEO

Press Trust of India

New Delhi: As Swedish caller identification app Truecaller touched 250 million active users milestone in India, CEO and co-founder Alan Mamedi believes there is still a lot of headroom for growth here, and does not anticipate any changes in how its “privacy-focused, permission-based system” works as new regulations come up in the country.

Mamedi asserted that the company will be compliant with the upcoming data protection laws in India and “welcomes any and all actions in the mission to make communication safe and efficient”.

Mamedi, who was recently in India along with Truecaller’s Chief Strategy Officer and co-founder Nami Zarringhalam, said the company appreciates Trai consultation on Caller Name Presentation (CNAP) and remains “very supportive of this and any future initiatives they have”.

The telecom regulatory authority of India (Trai) recently asked telecom companies to take immediate action to curb pesky calls and messages, initiating a slew of measures to crackdown on the issue of spam, and instances of fraud. Truecaller said it remains focused on core aspects of its service, that is, protecting the highest number of people from unwanted or malicious communication.

“There is a lot of room to grow, even in India. We currently have 250 million active users here, even though there may be over 500 million data connected smartphones,” Mamedi told PTI. On new regulations such as Digital India and digital personal data protection bill that are taking shape, Truecaller CEO affirmed that the company is already compliant with data protection laws in many other nations, and will abide by upcoming norms in India as well.

To a specific question on whether the company sees challenges to its business model from the new rules in offing in India, Mamedi said, “We do not anticipate any changes in how Truecaller works as a result of upcoming regulation.” Truecaller “is already a privacy-focused and permission-based system”, he emphasised.

Asked if Truecaller’s data collection processes and practices will stand the scrutiny of the new data protection law that India is proposing, Mamedi in an email interview said: “We have been compliant with all data protection laws introduced in other countries from day one and this is not really an issue or anything new to us. And we will also be compliant with the upcoming data protection laws in India.”