Mint Primer: How Trai's mandatory call ID will impact Truecaller
Mint decodes how such a move may affect telcos, and Truecaller: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) says telecom operators should adopt calling name presentation (CNAP). This feature will offer the single most important feature that Truecaller offers—the ability to recognize a caller’s name before receiving the call. Truecaller does this by utilizing cross-referenced contact information from its user- base, while Trai’s proposal for CNAP is to display the name with which a user or a business’ number is registered with a telco.
In most cases, industry experts expect caller information to overlap— hence essentially taking over Truecaller’s key business offering. Truecaller’s revenue comes from two sources—by showing ads to users, and by charging a subscription fee. On 20 February, the company’s December quarter financial report revealed that India accounted for just over 75% of its $168 million annual revenue earned in 2023.
As a result of this, the Indian government rolling out a native caller identification service is bound to have a key impact on Truecaller—which relies on India as its primary business market. For reference, India accounts for nearly two-thirds of Truecaller’s monthly active user (MAU)-base, which crossed 360 million at the end of December. There are multiple other such services but Truecaller is the largest caller ID service.
It employs 419 people around the world (as of December last year), and 71.6% of its latest quarter’s $42.23 million revenue came from India. While Google, Samsung and others have also tried to provide caller spam protection services, none has been as successful as Truecaller. Shortly after Trai’s statement, a Truecaller spokesperson said the firm “would like to extend
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